From Game to Fame
by Glacier Prince
Summary: Join a trio of college students in the middle of their final exams. To stop and clear their heads, they begin an all night Elder Scrolls series marathon. As fate would have it though, after they awoke, it was not their dorm rooms that the three find themselves in. Rated M because there's a lot of mature references farther and farther you dive into the story.
1. When in Rome

Head felt groggy. Couldn't focus. The last thing I remember was passing out from an all week Elder Scrolls-a-thon. Me and a few of my buddies played Arena through Skyrim each of us playing a different game. It was spring break, and exams were upon us, but we weren't really that worried.

My eyes opened. Slowly at first, a dark ring keeping me from focusing. It was like I wasn't wearing my glasses. It was cold. It sounded like hooves when my senses came to. Someone was starting a new game in Skyrim? I think I was too close to the screen, for when I looked around with my eyes, I could see the cart and the blue chain outfit of Ralof. Yet, the horse theif wasn't next to him, but there was another person inbetween them. A redguard?

No, this wasn't possible. We played on the Xbox version, which was the simplest way to play unmodded.

The redguard was a woman, passed out, her head bent too far back to see her facial features. A bitter wind hit my face. God, that stung. It wasn't until then that I looked down at myself.

Now, normally, you can't see your own body in game unless you play in third person. So, when I looked down, why did I see my own body, in rags and footwraps?

His voice was different than what I was used to, but somehow the same.

"Hey you, you're finally awake. You were trying to cross the border right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there."

I looked at Lokir. But I was not ready to see who sat between me and Ulfric Stormcloak. Nord by the looks of him, yet also something else. He had scruff around his chin and neck, short, almost cropped hair, pulled back into a short ponytail. Not his normal hair style, but it was him nonetheless.

We were roommates, him and I. At first, it had been awkward until we discovered that we both adored the Elder Scrolls series. He came to try his luck at becoming a professional soccer player, getting a scholarship as he worked towards his life's goal of joining the olympics. He had black hair, with blue eyes, and shaved everyday, except when our little group of three spent quality time together, like we had during this spring break.

Freaking Jonah. Hands bound, in rags of his own, if only just the trousers.

I jumped to conclusions about who our redgaurd woman was. A girl Jonah and I met in the campus' library, our freshman year. She became a fast friend, and eventually, Jonah and her became an item. Her skin color hadn't been altered, and yet somehow it had. Over the few years, she'd been included in many of Jonah and I's little Elder Scrolls weekends, and quickly grew to like the series.

She had died her hair blonde with pink stripes, but now she sat with her normal black flowing curls, tied into a simple bun, her curly bangs hanging off her face.

Kelsy. A bit more modestly dressed than Jonah or even I was.

"Shut up back there." the Imperial driver ordered. No one listened.

I moved to turn behind me. Frozen plants and a deer along side the road.

What the fuck was going on? Why were we here? I began panicking. I wasn't thinking, and kicked Jonah awake.

"What is it? We late for finals?" he said, waking up.

"Jonah, get up. We have a problem. Get Kelsy up too, I can't reach her."

His head picked up. "Why wouldn't you be able to reach her. The room's only..." When he stopped talking I knew he was taking in everything.

The gates of Helgen. Shit. This is bad, this is so bad...

Kelsy woke up, and the other two were distracted by their surroundings. The stone was real, not the pixels on the screen. Like grey bricks and hard wood. Helgen held more houses than in the game, yet the main street was still the same. A seemingly simple loop.

This is so bad...Fucking Morrowind would've been better than this place. How the hell did we even get here in the first place?

A nudge from Jonah. "Aaron, calm down bro. It'll be fine."

"Let's go. Shouldn't keep the gods waiting for us."

I just kept muttering the word shit under my breath. Stand up, hop down. Jonah stood next to the cart to help Kelsy down. Wait. Why was she taller than me? Why was everyone taller than me?

"Ulfric Stormcloak, the Jarl of Windhelm..."

"It has been an honor, Jarl Ulfric."

Fucking Hadvar. Just no, please no. Don't do the rollcall. Shut up please. This is not the place I wanted to be in. Not Alduin's return. I would've loved any _other_ period in Skyrim's history. Though I still don't know how we came to be here, and how it could be like this.

"Lokir of Rorikstead..."

"No, I'm not a rebel, you can't do this!"

The archers. Two shots in the back, one in the lung, one in the heart. He stopped, knelt down, coughed up blood, and died. More than just a simple ragdoll.

"Wait, you three. What are you doing on the cart? Who are you all?"

I imagined the character customization screen pop up in my head. There wouldn't be anytime for this though. None of us spoke however.

"Alright, let's start with names. Breton, you first."

Jonah looked like a nord, Kelsy would be called redguard due to her skin color, which meant that he was referring to...

...I hate bretons. Yet of course, whatever sick power put us in the game would make me my least favorite race. Great. I'm a walking magik sponge that's only about five feet tall in real life. Wonderful.

"Aaron." is what I wanted to say. It came out differently though.

"Aerune." Um. Okay. Did I stutter? As soon as I said it my mouth felt weird, like I spoke french. But I didn't know french. I took latin in high school.

"You there, kinsman. What's your name?"

"Gjorna." Was he having the same problem that I was having? It sounded like Jonah, but pronounced differently. Jonah scowled at nothing, and I knew something was up.

"What about you, redguard?"

"Kalesi." Same reaction from her. Yet, each of us could say the other two's names perfectly fine. Yet when asked our own names, they twisted into the morphed versions we gave to Hadvar.

"None of you seem to actually belong to Skyrim, not even you kinsman. What brought you here."

We hadn't the slightest idea. So none of us spoke.

"Captain, what should we do. They're not on the list."

"Forget the list. They go to the block."

"By your orders, captain." He turned to me. "I'm sorry, we'll make sure your remains are returned to your families. Follow the Captain, prisoners."

We all set up where we thought we should be. Jonah whispered something to me.

"Stormcloaks..." He was reffering to which side we should take after Alduin ruins the place. He knew that this was a debate topic that neither of us decided on. When this was a game, going with Ralof was the easier choice, as you got more starting gold, as the prices on Imperial gear were higher versus the weight ratio than with the stormcloak gear.

However, I always went with the Imperials because without the Empire united, Tamriel would fall the the Aldmeri Dominion. It was a debate that stretched throughout chatrooms and message boards and rather was amusing to see what kinds of points different people brought up.

"Imperials..." I whispered back. He smiled, which I saw out of the corner of my eye. General Tullius was adressing Ulfric now.

Then, that goddam roar. Alduin was making his approach. I took a step back, only to bump into an Imperial soilder who pushed me back into my original position.

"We need to get out of the courtyard." I said aloud.

Jonah whispered something in rebuttle, however. "I want to see who the dragonborn is, Aaron. Who is she going to call up next?"

"No. We're not staying. For all we know, Alduin couldn't come for minutes, and all three of us could be dead before then." Kelsy whispered to him. His voice of reason.

"Bleak Falls Barrow. We can test it there. I'm not dying in Helgen." I said.

Something unexpected happened. Hadvar and the Captain started getting into an argument. She wanted to send Kelsy to the block first, and Hadvar was against it. He argued that we three should've been taken to Solitude for questioning and a trial. Perhaps we'd just simply been caught up in the ambush, and weren't actually criminals.

This threw me off completely. I was expecting scripted dialogue, like in the game. A soilder questioning orders, made it seem more like real life than anything.

The Captain eventually won, and Kelsy slowly walked towards the block. She hesitated, taking that final step. The Captain grabbed her by the arm and forced her down on the block. They hadn't even moved the other stormcloak's body, and Hadvar just kicked it aside.

Kelsy was going to be beheaded. The second roar never came. Alduin was running late.

"Wait!" I yelled. Everyone turned towards me. The Captain ordered a gag for me. The Imperial soilder was more than happy to obey.

It was a strange feeling, what happened next. My hands got really cold, and as I was being gagged, I was forced back a bit, and then the cold sensation was gone. A burly, hardy gasp of pain came from infront of everyone.

I fell to the ground. When I sat up, I heard a loud slam, and worried about Kelsy. Had she been beheaded? What I saw was pretty foul.

The Headsman, was walking forward, away from his dropped axe, which probably made the loud slam. He was grasping his heart, his body looking cold. One step, blood started spittling from his blue lips. Another step, he stumbled, kneeling. Then he fell over, dead, revealing to everyone what had killed him.

A single long Ice Spike had pierced his heart, tearing through his chain armor and leather undergarments. Someone in the town called out 'Murderer!'

"Seize the mage!" General Tullius ordered.

What did I just get myself into? Every Imperial soildier surrounded me now, swords drawn as I lay on the street, still bound and now gagged.

There was no second roar. Alduin descended on Helgen at that very instant, summoning his meteors and destroying the town.

"Stormcloak traitor!" Hadvar yelled at Ralof. The two were at each other's throats. We had escaped Helgen, the five of us, after Hadvar and I took to the baracks and the other two followed Ralof into the Keep. They were charging at each other, weapons drawn. Their truce had ended, and they had left Helgen in one piece.

I threw an Ice Spike inbetween them before they could meet.

"Enough!" Jonah yelled. "We have bigger issues to worry about than your idiotic civil war!" The three of us were still in our prisoner outfits, though each of us now had a means to defend ourselves. Jonah had taken an iron waraxe and a shield, Kelsy had her longbow and a few dozen arrows, and I learned how adept at magik I was.

"Outsiders should be wary of their tongues, even if you are kinsman." Ralof said.

"You must see reason." Kelsy began. "A dragon has attacked Helgen. Surely you must be worried about the neighboring towns." She meant Riverwood.

The two looked at each other. They knew what needed to be done, I think.

"We'll go on ahead then." Ralof said. "A final truce, eh, Hadvar."

"Fine." They both exended their hands. "But if I ever see you outside of Riverwood, your a dead man, Ralof." Off they went. No threat needed this time. Jonah came up with the clever idea of threatening to kill them if they didn't cooperate in the Keep. Then, he'd have his wizard raise their corpses to fight anyway.

"We need some new duds." Jonah suggested. We couldn't really carry that much, in actuality. I clutched a large bag of food from the keep, mostly bread, apples, leek, and tomatoes. With her arrows, Kelsy barely had room to carry anything, but managed to hold onto the keys and a few potions. Jonah held all the gold we've collected and a few leather straps and a single bottle of Alto Wine. I already miss the carry capacity from the game. And then Jonah laughed for a bit. "Mining's going to be a bitch!" He laughed some more.

"Word." I said.

"You know, there should be a bandit camp just below this ridge." Kelsy said. "Armor, supplies, a place to sleep."

"Yeah." Jonah answered her. "I want to get out of these pants."

I smirked. "Perhaps you two can do that when we find an actual bed." He set himself up for it.

"Oh, God no!" Kelsy said. They were boyfriend and girlfriend, yes, but they didn't do that. I teased 'em about it every so often. "Atleast, not here."

On the outter edge of the ridge, there they were. In the game, they were a bandit clad in iron armor, a two hander in hide or the occasional topless fur armor, and an archer in fur armor. Skill book on the sunk in desk in the third tent. Black Mage robes in the first tent. We didn't have time to grab the robes off the dead victim in the Keep, as the whole place was coming down. I barely had time to read the Shock book during all the fighting. It made my fingers numb, which I didn't like. If all lightning spells made my fingers like that, then I'd have to give up on that branch.

Fire spells gave me a burn, but it was instantly gone unless I used the confligration version, Flames. Frost spells just made my fingers feel cold, which I didn't mind. I grew up in Maine, and I actually liked the cold.

Kelsy aimed her bow through the trees. She was a regional placing archer in her highschool, and this came naturally to her.

"Whenever you're ready boys." she whispered.

"Got a steady bead on the archer?" I asked. She replied yes.

"Aaron and I will run in after you take down the archer. Aaron, take out the heavy armor. I can take out the two-hander."

"Right. On your go, Kelsy."

A few seconds passed, and I prepared spells I didn't even know about. I didn't know how I prepared them, I just did. The equivilent of Ice Spike, Healing Hands, Flames, Frostbite, Oakflesh, Conjure Familiar, though it turned into a spider, not a wolf, Sparks, and Calm, were he spells I knew. They had different names however, and the text was really rather interesting. You didn't just look at the books and know how to use the spell. It's odd, how differently you learned here versus when this was a game to us. I for one was interesting to see how the skill books read.

Kelsy released her arrow, and a blood curtling scream sounded from below. An arrow placed perectly in the neck from atleast twenty yards, down hill. Jonah rushed down the hill, screaming his battlecry. Ah, nords.

I jumped over the ridge and flailed my hands in patterns. My spider familiar warped from it's space in Oblivion to where I needed it. Jonah had taken the two-hander, as he said, knocking him over with a sheild bash. He stumbled, picking up his weapon.

The heavy armor was charging him, however. I shot Flames at him. He turned, and charged me. Ice Spike to his lower knee, a sort of modified version of the arrow in the knee meme. He fell. My spider familiar pounced on him, stabbing at his face. I thought I would be sick. I dismissed my conjured pet. I was getting rather attached to it, but I don't believe I could control it other than summoning and dismissing. It tried to attack Jonah in the Keep before he banished it.

A breton who is terrible at summoning. How ironic.

I kicked the body over and looked for the straps to unlock the iron armor from the body. Kelsy came down from the ridge. She went over to the body of the archer, exchanged bows, and proceeded to strip the dead girl of her fur armor.

We were not new to this. Killing people. To me, it felt as if they were just enemies in a video game, which I think distracted me from the blood that was real, the smell, and the cries of pain. I didn't know how the others were dealing with it, but I watched a Kelsy removed the dead girl's armor, and began to undress.

"Do you mind, Aaron?" she asked me.

I shook my head, as if trying to shake water out of my hair. "Sorry, sorry. Continue." I turned away to the first tent, where I was rather disappointed. The robes weren't there. The skillbook was there, which Jonah was reading, munching on an apple out of the sack next to him, but there were no mage robes.

We couldn't actually go back to get the other robes from the Keep. Alduin had turned Helgen into nothing but rubble. I would either have to remain in rags until we got to Whiterun, or I'd have to use the hide armor. Atleast until we got to Riverwood.

I looked at both of them. Kelsy was done changing, and iron armor sat at Jonah's feet, while he munched on an apple, closing the book. They were so calm. It just came out, and I have no idea why, but I was sorta glad it did.

"How can you two be so calm about this!?" It was a burst of fear, greif, hatred, worry, sadness, interest, and anything else to describe how I felt at that moment.

Silence. Jonah set down the book, looking at me. Kelsy met my eyes as I turned to look at her. She walked past me, handing what I assumed to be the treasure map to Jonah.

"Who says we are, Aaron." she said as she did so. "Who says we are?"


	2. No Longer Code

"You have incredible skill with the forge, son." Alvor said. Though I'll admit, in college I was studying to be an engineer, but this was sort of a challenge.

"First time, actually." I said, wiping the sweat from my forehead. I moved around and grabbed the pulley to add more heat. Metal can't be formed in cold heat.

"No, your joking. To see someone move so efficently around the forge, you must be some sort of prodigey." he complimented me. He leaned against his pillar, Hadvar and I having filled him in on the news while Kelsey, Jonah, and Ralof filled Gurdur and Hod in. Kelsey and Jonah were over in Lucan's right now, no doubt asking about the golden claw and seeing if Lucan wanted any assistance recovering it.

I wanted glasses. I couldn't stand looking at this fuzzy world anymore. It might take a few attempts, but if I could get atleast the top half of the make shift frame made from regular iron, perhaps there might be a chance to craft them. I doubt they'd be thin frame, like the ones I used to have, but I would rather be able to see what I was hitting from ten yards away rather than worry about how I looked.

The door across the street opened. I was banging the metal on the anvil, trying to get it as thin and bendable as possible. Tap, tap, tap. The metal bent about ten degrees to the left. Perfect, now to find a way to make it wrap around itself.

"Aaron. We're heading out." Kelsey said. Outfit change for her. She had complained that the fur, though it kept her warm, was uncomfortable and itchy. She wore a dress, probably something she picked up at Lucan's. In her arms, she had the fur armor draped over her left, and what looked like studded armor in her right. She sold the fur to Alvor, seventeen gold pieces.

"Where to?" I asked, finishing my final tap on the anvil.

"Bleak Falls Barrow." Jonah answered for her.

That meant we'd finally see which one of us was the dragonborn. Kelsey had been taken to the block first, but we couldn't agree that that was a defining feature. I was the one who's life was actually at stake, after all. Nothing that we dubbed the defining moment was unanimously agreed upon other than two things. One, whoever the word of power speaks to, and two, the one with the ability to absorb dragon souls.

I wished Alvor farewell, and told him that I had started a curved blade. He took my place, trying to pick up where I left off. We headed out towards the north gate. Jonah nodded towards the inn, asking Kelsey to change in one of the rooms. She did, coming out in her studded armor. Jonah handed her her bow and quiver of steel arrows. He slung our bag of food over his shoulder, and we left Riverwood.

Getting dark, and windy. The watchtower near the temple. Kelsey was trying her hands at the locked wooden chest under the stairs. I sat at the table, trying to get my familiar spider, whom Kelsey had taken to calling Crumper, not to attack Jonah, who stood just a few feet away. The thing hissed, took steps forward, before I tried to get it to step back.

One step back, before it lunged at Jonah. Right into the head of his waraxe. It disappaited.

"It can't be that hard, can it, Aaron?" Jonah asked.

"Actually, it's not. But it's not like they're programmed with an AI that only targets enemies. It's like it's confused." I said. "Best way I can describe it." I shrugged. Some stale bread sat next to me. Might as well, right? I peeled away the hard outside and ate the insides.

"I got it!" Kelsey shouted. Everyone moved around the chest. "Just takes a bit of a steady hand, like building hard drives." She opened the lid.

Four items sat on top of lazily distributed gold pieces. Thirty seven, at first glnace. A book, with the alteration symbol imprinted on the cover. Kelsey saw my interest and handed me the book. There was an ornate Elven dagger, an amulet of talos, and a small puzzle box. Jonah grabbed the box.

"What the heck is this? This never appeared in any chests during the game." he stated. Wooden, two locks on the shorter sides. The lid seemed to move, as did each section of a nine by six grid that adorned the lid. Two sections had been removed, leaving a space to slide the grid squares around.

Nine by six, that's fifty four. No. This box is too small for that. I counted in my head. Fourty nine, fifty, fifty one, fifty two. Plus the two blank spaces. But it looked to be only about five inches by eight inches, the entire box. Who the heck made this?

"I'll start the fire. It's getting a bit too dark for my liking." Jonah said, never taking his eyes off the box. "You two get some rest. I'll keep watch."

About an hour later, Kelsey had passed out, and I had finished reading the spell book. It was basically the alteration spell Telekenisis, though the book used a more colorful term. As with all the other spell books I read, after the seal had been broken, and then reshut, the book disappaited similar to a conjured familiar.

I looked up, at the floorboards that seperated us three from the sky. I placed my hands behind my head, and just began thinking. Jonah was up, sitting in a chair, tending the fire.

"Been thinking a lot." Jonah said, out of the blue.

I teased him. "Congratulations. There _is_ a first time for everything."

He smirked, and chuckled at the same time. "Seriously though. How did we get here? The only thing I remember before you waking me up was blowing off some steam before the crackdown we'd have to return to once we went back to campus."

"Finals for our junior year." I summed up for him.

"Yeah. Those." He tugged out what kept his small ponytail together, and his hair fell into almost what he normally wore. "It's a bit eerie, you know, being physically in the game like this. All the blood..." He sort of said the last word with a bit of disgust. It was understandable.

"It's a bit more than just splatters on your axe, ain't it?"

He gave no answer, but just simply nodded. "A hell of a lot more."

"Magic ain't all it's cracked up to be either. No indicator to tell you that your mana is running low, or hotkeys to select your most powerful spells at a moment's notice." I tried to make him feel at ease.

"No health bar or stamina bar either..." he added. "Plus a carrying capacity of about twenty."

I gave a swift snort. "Mine's more like ten." We both laughed. The fire crackled. Kelsey stirred, and Jonah stared at her after pulling the makeshift fur covers over her chest.

"I'm a bit worried about you two, you know." he said. "You two fight from a distance, so you might not know, but I do. I can feel how hard they swing against my sheild. Intent to kill." He paused. "What happens if we die in this world?"

The question that made both of us fall into a dead silence. We'd survived so far off cunning, knowing where enemies were based on the game, and strategy. What happened when something fucked up our plans, and one of us, or all of us, died?

A chill ran up my spine, and not because I was cold. Thoughts I wouldn't have thought about if we were back at Kelsey's apartment playing video games.

Jonah nudged me with his foot. "Hey. Forget I brought it up. Get some rest. We've got things to do tomorrow. He turned away, and I tried to get some sleep, however light and unrestful it was.

"Those two talking still?" I asked Jonah and Kelsey in hushed words. We were outside the entrance to Bleak Falls Barrow, about like, eight in the morning.

For the past hour, the sentry for the bandit troop that held the Barrow had been talking to one of the bandits. She looked upset at something. She put her hands over her stomach. He fell to his knees, and she fell to her's as well, embracing him. I realized what she had told him.

The start of a family, right before our eyes. Kelsey was still full drawn. I pushed her bow down, which caused her to misfire into the stone below the couple. The couple snapped to attention, and the man told the woman to stay with a gesture.

"What are you doing?" Kelsey asked me.

"We're not killing a mother and her unborn child." I said. "This isn't a game anymore. Our actions do have reprecussions."

"So how are we fighting them without killing them?" she asked.

"Disarm them." Jonah said almost immediatley. "Aaron's right. Unless we have to, don't kill anyone. I know I don't want to be branded a murderer."

Telekenisis. No summoning. Oakflesh if I need it. Healing Hands for sure.

We marched up the steps, surrounded by a few of the other bandits. The couple was also present. She had her bow drawn, and he had a waraxe of his own. They stood on my left. The other three were another archer, a two-hander, and a sword and shield in heavy armor.

"State your business!" the pregnant bandit shouted.

I moved my hand in a rather fluent motion. Calm spell. I could see her visably relax, but her arrow was still aimed at my throat.

"Hang their business!" the heavily armored bandit shouted in retort. "They look like they got a death wish, and we could loot their corpses for supplies."

"No. You should let us pass." I said. "We have business in the Barrow, and it would seem that some of you have bigger concerns than wasting their lives as bandits. Families to raise." A hint at the bandit couple. He took a deep breath. He was an imperial by his facial structure. She looked to be redguard.

They looked at each other. The couple lowered their weapons, but the other three did not. They instead charged. The two-hander swung at Kelsey, who jumped back, and as he stumbled, rolled over his body, and kicked his greatsword out of his hands before kicking the back of his knee. He fell to the floor.

The archer fired at Jonah, who simply blocked with his shield. I waved a Calm spell at him, and Jonah disarmed him.

The heavily armored one didn't charge immediatley, but she did eventually, but when the other two were disarmed so easily, she stopped. I waved my Telekenisis spell, her sword flying into my hand. She knelt down and begged for mercy. I tossed the blade down the steps. A shame. It was orcish.

Kelsey and Jonah turned to walk into the temple, and I just stayed behind. The Calm spells wore off, but their effects had been felt. The couple simply stared at me.

"Might I know your names?" I asked them. They seemed baffled.

"Uh...I'm Oleta. This is Crito. He's um..."

"Oleta and Crito?" Names I was familiar with, if only because I played Morrowind. "Take care of each other." Another baffled expression. "Make sure the kid grows up well." With that, Oleta smiled, as she must've realized that I had seen their conversation. Crito took a while before I think he realized what I was talking about.

It would be hard to forget those two. Oleta and Crito. The people who made me realize that this wasn't a game anymore. No more random hacking and slashing. The people and things we fought had lives. Would it be so different if this was our original world? A psychopath running through a crowded street cutting people down. He'd be viewed as a monster, wouldn't he? So, though this was Tamriel, why should we act like this was still a game? Did we not need to eat, did we not need to use the restroom? Did we not breath the air and grasp our weapons as if they were real?

Which wasn't any farther from the truth than one wanted to accept. It was the truth, as far as I wanted to know. We would find a way back to our own lives, but for now, we'd just have to live in this world, doing what we could.

The slicing of blades. We had come deep into the Barrow. Somehow, the ancient gears had rusted, and the blades swung freely, not even stopping when Jonah raced through and pulled the chain. Freaking wonderful.

"Well then how are we supposed to get through? You barely cleared it!" Kelsey shouted.

"I don't know. Can you crawl through it?"

I put a finger on my chin as Kelsey objected. "No, no. That's not a terrible idea, actually. We can move in the full range, where the game only had us squat. If we could get on our stomachs or backs, we could shimmy through." I put forward.

I stepped back a few feet and thought about which position would be easier to crawl with. It be easier to see how close the blade are on my back. I could use my arms against the sides once I got inside.

My feet were just a few inches from the swinging blades. Inch at a time, Aaron. Inch at a time. It probably took about five minutes for myself to get through. I was scared. These things could very well have cut me in half if they wanted to dip down a few inches. I don't think Kelsey wanted to know how close those blades were to her quiver. Let's just say it wasn't inches, or centimeters for that matter.

And there was one more, deeper in the Barrow. Shit. Should that one be as old as this one, we'd have a problem.

We all got ourselves reasserted and back to the task at hand.

"Four draugr in the next hallway. You wanna blow 'em up or actually kill'em?" Jonah asked.

"Will there even be oil on the floor? There was no hidden loot chest in the previous room." Kelsey said. She was stretching, her studded armor reflecting off the small Candlelight floating above me. A book I found in the chest after the puzzle room. Jonah got a new dwarven waraxe from that same chest. Kelsey was awarded with like, seven vials of frostbite venom from that large one we had to fight to get the claw back. Poor Arvil was already dead, however. That spider did something nasty to him.

"We can handle them. Three of us versus just regular draugr? Like tricking Kelsey's cat with the lazer pointer to jump into a bathtub full of water." I said.

"Oh no! What do you think Creampuff is doing?" she said, worried about her cat.

"I'm sure she's fine." Jonah said, nudging my ribs hard. Why did he use his shield? That hurt. Asshole.

We walked down the steps, and towards the first draugr. Time to go to work.

The moment of truth. Kelsey had been picking locks on chests while Jonah and I kept the Draugr Deathlord, as he was known in the game, busy. He laid dead on the floor, a bit of a challenge not hitting Jonah with Ice Spikes as he danced around the draugr. Soccer footwork coming in handy, I guess. The word wall waited to dub the first word of power onto the dragonborn.

We still didn't know if any of us were the dragonborn, but the reality we were in played almost exactly like when this was a game. One of us had to be dragonborn. We were at Helgen. We were the odd ones out from Ulfric and his boys. One of us had to be the dragonborn. Though, deep in the back of my head, I feared what that might do for our friendship. I didn't fancy the idea of anyone of us rising above the other two because of this.

"Ladies first." Jonah jested, waving his sheild towards Kelsey. She set her hunting bow down on the ground, and walked forward. Usually, you'd get the word before the Draugr appeared, but he climbed out almost instantly when we climbed the stairs.

She was slow, and about six feet from the word wall, she froze. A moment passed by.

"Nothing..." she said, defeated. She turned, putting her hands on her hips. "Looks like I'm not the dragonborn."

"Younger one next." Jonah said. He meant me. Perhaps he was waiting to go last, the same ideas in his head as mine.

I stepped up to where Kelsey was moving from. She froze, and grabbed my hide armor by the chest piece.

"Hold it. You hear that, Aaron?"

It was very subtle. Weak, but the sound of chanting came from the word wall. Kelsey turned around, but it didn't respond other than a low chanting. Similar to if you were standing back from it in the game.

"It didn't start until you came up..." Kelsey said.

"I don't hear anything." Jonah said. I waved him to come closer, as Kelsey and I stared at the word wall, and I moved my braced hand against the ancient stone. It seemed as if Jonah's steps echoed, and the chanting got louder. He stopped, as he began to hear it.

"Sweet mother. They're in my head..." he said. "Does that mean I'm the dragonborn?" High hopes.

"We hear them too, Jay." Her nickname for him. "It's odd, but I know that I can hear them." I didn't need to look at her to know she turned to me. "What about you, Aaron?"

I was squatting now, running my fingers into the carvings. Why was this more interesting than it seemed to me? The simple carvings? Not the fact that I was hearing chanting in my head like a crazy person, but that I could touch these carvings, feel the stone.

"Aaron!" Jonah snapped.

"Yes, I hear them too." It wasn't where the word should have been, but my vision became more blurry than normal, and almost, blue. The chanting became louder as I ran my fingers over one specific pair of carvings. I lost balance. I fell on my ass.

Then the chanting stopped, after a crescendo. My vision returned to the slightly fuzzy world, and I looked back at my friends. Kelsey was on her knees, rubbing her temples. Jonah leaned against the sarcophagus, covering his eyes with his free hand. They had experienced the same thing I had?

I was starting to piece together an odd theory, about our predicament. But, I wouldn't let them know right away. It went a little something like this:

We all had been taken for whatever reason, not just one of us. We were all at Helgen, all there to witness Alduin's return. Not one of us was dressed as a stormcloak soilder, meaning that like the dragonborn, we were at the wrong place at the wrong time. And now with the word wall, which only began to chant to us when more than one of us approached, and gave up it's word when all three of us were near. It was a long shot, and I'd need confirmation during the up and coming dragon fight, but I think...

...I think we're all dragonborn.

It even hints at the possibility if you spoke to the Greybeards in the game. It was unknown just how many dragonborns there were at the time, as the player was the only one revealed due to his special circumstances. But what if, like how we were now, there had been more than one dragonborn in the game?

I think I just blew my own mind.


	3. Novice M, Nicknames, and the Tower

"What is this? The Dragonstone of Bleak Falls Barrow! You two already found it! It seems that you were cut from a different cloth than most of the other mercenaries the Jarl foists on me."

Hmm, similar line, but not exactly the same. We were in Whiterun, and Jonah and I had gone to warn Jarl Balgruuf the Greater about Riverwood being in danger. Irileth was more than happy to attack us, seeing two bandits armed with heavy armor and weapons as a threat in the great hall. Jonah put her in her place real quick, blocking, and then sparta kicking her to give us a few moments to explain ourselves.

I don't think that was the best way to handle her though. One thing's for certain though, dark elves were far more, appealing, than when this was just a game.

Kelsey had been stopped at the gate by the town guards, as they believed it was another attempt for the Alik'r to enter the city. She said her farewells and said that she had other things to do in the capitol, so she went with the guards. I guess the guards had some sense to their reasoning, but I couldn't help to think that something else was going on.

"And you. You look well versed in the arcane arts. Perhaps we could trade knowledge or perhaps have a duel-"

"Farengar! Farengar, you need to come at once! A dragon's been sighted nearby!" We looked back at her. She looked us over, then added what words we were both waiting for. "You should come, too."

Farengar went off on his usual rant, a bit too obsessed with the dragons returning, if you were to ask me. I liked to jest back when we played this game, that he and Delphine were hooking up, and that's why he was so interested in the dragons, because Delphine was a Blade. I wouldn't just outright ask him about it though, it'd take away from the fun of it.

Up the steps to the upper floor, Jarl Balgruuf in his spot.

"Now, Irileth tells me you came from the Western Watch Tower?"

The usual conversation occured. Irileth was to send a garrison to fight the dragon. Farengar was to remain here, against his wishes, studying the Dragonstone. Then the Jarl turned to Jonah an I.

"Gjorna, Aerune, those were your names, correct? Your mercenary band seems reliable enough. I want you to go with Irileth and help her fight this dragon. You came just at the right time, too. And if your stories are right, then you were at Helgen when the dragon attacked. I'd be honored to have the two of you go along and help defend the hold against this dragon."

"Technically, there's three of us." Jonah interrupted. "Our third member is a redgaurd woman, the guards split her from us at the gates incase she was with the Alik'r."

"Then she shall join you immediately. I managed to acquire some items from the armory for the both of you. Please, accept them as gifts. For all that you've done and all that you will do. Your friend will get her gifts upon return to me, after the dragon is dealt with, of course."

Proventus handed Jonah a dwarven shield, which glimmered as if enchanted. It probably was. He handed myself something I've been waiting for for days. Apprentice robes and an apprentice hood to match. Finally, I could actually look like a mage now. Though, this hide armor has gotten extremely comfortable now.

We thanked the Jarl and his steward, and marched down the steps. I had to stop somewhere to change, and Jonah wanted to pawn his old shield off to Belethor. Plus we had to go collect Kelsey.

A bit loose, but a belt fixed that. The hood kept my ears covered, which helped out on the plains when the wind nipped at them. It was getting about dusk when Kelsey joined us at the stones infront of the Western Watchtower, and we were waiting on Irileth with her troops.

"What did the guards want with you?" Jonah asked. Kelsey scoffed.

"Men are pigs, you know that?"

That was pretty much all from that conversation I needed to hear. The subject quickly changed when Kelsey saw me in my new robes.

"You guys get the gifts from Balgruuf already? Get anything for me?" she asked.

"Uh..." I began. "No. We did let him know that you were with us though, and after Novice M is defeated, and we return with proof, he said he'd give you a gift for defending the city as well."

"Novice M?" Kelsey asked.

"He means the dragon, Muriniir or whatever his name is. It's really difficult to pronounce, as most of the named dragons were. So we came up with nicknames for 'em and stuff. The dragon at the watchtower is Novice M, because he's probably the easiest to kill. The dragon we see Alduin revive is called Dirthead, cuz you know, he comes out of the dirt. So on and so forth."

Jonah, always there to explain things. Most of the named dragons we'd had clever little pet names for. The two stated prior for example, yet dragons that deserved to be called by their proper names, such as Odaviing and Alduin we didn't give nicknames. Paarthurnax was debatable, and Jonah and I settled on calling him Pappy Paarthurnax. I chuckled as I recalled that nickname.

"What are you laughing at, Aaron?"

"Pappy Paarthurnax..." I said. Jonah chuckled, putting a hand on my back.

Then I had an idea. I don't know why this didn't come to mind sooner, but memory has an odd way of reminding us of things.

"Shit. You think Skelly-bones is alive? Duurn-something or another. From the Soul Cairne?"

"The summonable dragon from the Dawnguard dlc?" Kelsey asked, slightly clarifying things. I gave a nod.

Jonah put his hand to his chin. "That's an interesting question. So far, if we were playing the game, we wouldn't have come far enough for any of the dlc to activate, save Hearthfire. Dawnguard procs either if you find Durmak and speak to him or you go to Fort Sungaurd yourself. Dragonborn doesn't proc until after you've absorbed a dragon soul and spoken to the greybeards."

"But not everything is exactly like the game. Aela and the companions weren't even fighting a giant at Pelegia Farm when we walked up the road." Kelsey added. She had a good point. Dialogue was understandable, as there were three of us, and what we said back usually wasn't a static phrase mounted to a dialogue screen. But events were a different story. Alduin never roared twice at Helgen, the Companions weren't at Pelegia Farm, and Delphine wasn't at her inn, Farengar's lab, or on the road between.

"Come on men! We're almost there!"

Irileth was coming. I counted the number of men she was bringing.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven...

...twenty one, twenty two, twenty three...

Twenty seven men stood with her. My eyes widened. Jonah and Kelsey were as surprised as I was. Irileth climbed up on the rock, the same as us. It was getting to be dark, and her eyes were far better suited than anyone else's without light.

"No sign of any dragon right now, but it sure looks like he's been here." She turned to her men. "I know it looks bad, but we've got to figure out what happened here. If that dragon is still lurking around somewhere..." She paused. Then she took charge.

"Groups of nine, spread out and search the area! Be prepared to fight." She turned to us. "Gjorna, I want you and your men to follow me. I want to get a view from the top of the tower."

"Yes, ma'am." Jonah said, giving a slight nod.

Swords and hammers were drawn, and the guards split up into three groups of nine, heading to different sides of the watch tower. I recognized the original four that were in the game, who were all in the left most line of guards. Or atleast who I thought were the guards from the game. You could never be sure, as things were now.

Irileth and I made our way to the ramp of the tower, Jonah and Kelsey behind us. I expected the frightened guard to show up as soon as we stepped foot on it, but he never did. I looked back at Jonah and shrugged.

Carefully, slowly, we made our way up the stone column. Holes had been punched into it, made by Novice M, no doubt. If he was this powerful, I shuddered at what stronger dragons like Dirthead or even Alduin could do. Not to mention the Twins. Oh, mercy. That thought scared me.

We made it to the top of the spiral steps when Irileth dashed across the top of the tower. Now I knew why the guard didn't show up on the ramp.

He laid, sprawled out, half his body a singed mess, the other half bleeding out. Large burn marks made their way across the stone next to him, evidence of a fly by. It was too disgusting to look at, and Kelsey and I turned, while Jonah actually knelt by the guard and apologized to him for not arriving sooner.

"N-No...G-get back. It's s-still here somewhere..." The guard said weakly. He was dying, but he was still alive. Irileth hushed him.

"At peace, my friend. Slip to Sovenguarde now, for you will be welcomed." she said. The guard let out one final breath as he died, closing his one eye that remained unburnt.

Novice M roared in the distance. I felt like I had to. It didn't feel like the first dragon fight of the game unless the next phrase was spoken.

"Kynareth save us, here he comes again."

Irileth took charge once more, yelling commands at her guards below.

"Here he comes! Find cover, and make every arrow count! We'll bring this bastard down!"

Cast Oakflesh, and I ran down the stairs to join the action, summoning my familiar in the process, who instead attacked Kelsey before I dispatched it and resummoned it again.

I kicked the fucker.

"Listen here, dammit! I'm tired of your shit! I don't know how I keep doing it, but I summon you to help me and my friends. Not harm them." Crumper hissed at me. "Hiss at me all you want, we've got bigger fuckin' problems to worry about! So, by oblivion, if you don't fuckin help me properly this time, you can sit in whatever gods forsaken miserable little plane of existance you come from and rot for all I care. A dragon is attacking, and I don't have time for your shit, Crumper!"

He hissed again, but slightly less so. I just left him there, and joined the battle, recasting Oakflesh and preparing Healing Hands, Ice Spike, and Steadfast Ward in my mind incase I needed them.

It was a bit dark to see, and the fact that most everything was blurry didn't help either. He looked like a bright spec in the sky, if only when he was breathing fire. Irileth and I fired from a distance, her lightning and my ice. Jonah was with Kelsey, blocking fly by fire with his enchanted dwarven sheild. The guards around us fell, however, the flames consuming their light armor and lack of defenses. I tried to heal as many as I could, but Restoration was perhaps my least used school of magik, and it felt awkward in my hands. I quickly ran out of magicka whenever I tried to heal someone through the burns.

"Breton, watch yourself!" Irileth shouted. I turned to see Novice M doing a dive bomb, blasting fire at my direction. I threw up Steadfast Ward as quickly as I could, but I was drained. I couldn't keep the flames back forever.

Out of the corner of my eye, a white shadow threw itself at Novice M, redirecting his path just slightly enough so that the flames flew by me as I ran out of magicka to cast the ward. This also changed his course, and he skidded against the top half of a pile of rubble from a destroyed walkway. A sharp bit cut against his left side, and I saw red left behind on the walkway.

A hiss, and I turned to the source. Freaking Crumper. He flailed on his back, his legs kicking in the air. Could he not get up? I moved him with my foot. As I did so, he went to chase Novice M.

"You freakin' bastard, Crumper." I said to myself. I smiled, though it was probably not the appropriate time for it. I remembered the nasty hit Novice M took. I called out to Jonah.

"Jonah! He'll be grounded soon! Gather a few guards and go on the offensive when he does!"

"How do you know?" he yelled back. "There's no indicator!"

"He just cut himself open on the last fly by! He should be landing soon!"

He looked at the raised walkway, and I could tell he saw the blood. He turned to gather some guards. "Guardsmen! On me! He'll be landing soon!"

Irileth fired a Lightningbolt into the sky, and she probably missed. She had heard me shout to Jonah. "How could you possibly know that?" she asked. "What makes you think he'll come down at all?"

I looked at her, and said the first thing that came to mind. "Hawks need to land eventually, don't they? Call me a visionary." I rolled my eyes. Pretencious much?

I ran over to Kelsey, taking up Jonah's job of body blocking flames with my wards for her while she fired steel arrows out. Before I did however, I could see what I had said click in Irileth's mind. She began calling out to the men to save their arrows.

Just like I thought, he did indeed land, or more like crash. The tower shook when he knocked against the top of it on his descent, and then the entire tower collapsed in on itself. It was all I could do to not be there when it did.

Novice M laid there, moving slowly, and it seemed awkward for something so large. Perhaps the crash into the walkway did more damage than I thought. Jonah and the four guards I recognized from the game were already on his position, circling around to surround M. Jonah was clanging his axe against his sheild.

Kelsey, Irileth and I stood behind them, ready to give assistance.

"I must commend you, Breton. You show foresight I have not seen in hundreds of years." Did Irileth just give me a compliment? The stone cold, bitchy housecarl of Jarl Balgruuf the Greater just gave someone a compliment? What was this world coming to?

Novice M began to fight from the ground, nipping and slashing his tail. The guards could do nothing but dodge, as M's reach was much larger than their weapons could reach. Jonah blocked with his shield, but even he couldn't get close enough.

"He needs to be distracted." Kelsey said to me. "Jonah and the guards can't get to him while he's focused on them." With that, she shot an arrow into M's neck, right behind his jaw. She was right, of course.

Ice Spikes flew at the dragon's body, shattering on his thick hide. He turned to us, and let out a Fire Shout.

Steadfast Ward all but consumed the magick. So, wards still blocked these as well as their flames now. Good to know.

That was what he needed. Jonah clanged on his shield again, and Novice M turned to the noise, then lunged. Jonah ducked under, swinging upwards with his waraxe. A clean wound became visable, right where Kelsey had fired her shot not moments before. M staggered, and Jonah did the unthinkable. He climbed ontop of the dragon's head.

In my head, I was screaming the word 'killcam' over and over. Yet, if I shouted it out loud now, I don't think anyone would understand but Kelsey and Jonah. So, I kept quiet, yet grinned as Jonah clung to the dragon's horns.

One hit to the same spot he had hit before, then two, and then a third.

Novice M's head got a bit looser, as the muscles holding it had been cut as Jonah sliced his way to the jugular. The gaurds cleared out as M kicked and flailed at his own demise. And then it was over, and Jonah was thrown off, not getting up himself for a good minute or two. Kelsey ran over to him, confirming that he was alive, but the wind had been knocked out of him.

Novice M lay on the ground, eyes hazed over, dead. I approached, getting a better view of our hazy dragon for my own benifit. I could see where Jonah had cut, deep and all thorough like. I could see M's inner meat, could see a segment of his spine. Disgusting, but fascinating all the same. The cut had been much deeper than it looked, when he ran into the edge of the walkway. Scales had been cut away, and muscles torn. Part of his ribcage was exposed, which was horrifically repulsive, yet it was what slowed M down enough to put down.

"What's the verdict, Breton? Is that overgrown lizard really dead?" Irileth asked, from a good ten yards away. She had the right to be suspicious, as dragons were tough sons o' bitches. Thick hide and monstorous strength, even when this was a game.

"Aye." I said. "Not even necromancers would be able to bring this thing back."

Jonah and Kelsey walked up to Novice M, marveling at their accomplishment. But I know Jonah had other things on his mind. For one, the dragon still had it's scales, guts, and other things. In the game, when the dragonborn approaches the body of a dead dragon, it begins to burn, and their soul gets absorbed.

It was truly time to see which one of us was the dragonborn.

I stood next to my two friends, and we waited. It was slow at first, small little lights in the darkness. The tail began to burn up, and soon, the whole body became nothing but bones.

"Everyone, get back!" Irileth shouted.

A furious wind erupted from the corpse, blowing against the three of us. It was stronger than I anticipated, and I fell to a knee. And then it was over, and we each turned to each other, smiling.

My theory was correct. We were all dragonborn. The soul had been split into three different parts, by the feel of it, perhaps we weren't going to be as strong as a single dragonborn, but we were many more.

Alduin was gonna have is ass kicked.

"I can't believe it...You three, you're dragonborn!"

Jonah and I started walking back to Dragonsreach, when Kelsey asked for help with something.

"Well, we need proof, right?" she said. She was trying to pull Novice M's skull off it's skeleton, but it was still connected with leftover strands of rotted muscle. She struggled. "Besides, it makes a nice trophy..."

Jonah and I looked at each other. She was right, atleast about the first part. Jonah took out his axe and chopped away at the lingering muscle. The skull came clear off.

I had to carry it though, as I didn't actually carry weapons. So, I asked for the elven dagger that Kelsey carried, and cradled the skull in my arms like a baby, and aimed the dagger for the forehead. I began carving something into it.

 _N...o...v...i...c...e...M_

Novice M. This was his skull after all. Might as well know who we killed for this. I showed the others, using Candlelight to make the carving ledgible.

"You carved his nickname into it?" Jonah asked. He held the skull, passing me his shield. "What happens if Balgruuf asks questions?"

"Well, he didn't actually say he needed to keep the skull." Kelsey said. "And seeing how momentus your killcam was, it does make a nice trophy, plus we know which dragon it was we killed, because of the name."

Jonah thought it over for a moment. "Cool..."

A crack of thunder shook the whole ground. Words carried on the sound, and they were words we expected to hear.

"Do-vah-kiin!"


	4. Trolls and Notes

"So, what happened at the Watchtower? Was the dragon there?"

Jonah and Kelsey parted ways, and I stepped forward, revealing M's skull. The Jarl was at a loss for words. He stood, marveling at our accomplishment. Rongar and Avenicci also were in awe.

"The tower was destroyed, Jarl Balgruuf, but the dragon _is_ dead." Jonah answered.

"Your mercenary band continues to perplex me, Gjorna. Such accomplishments, such feats, yet asking nothing in return." Balgruuf said, still eyeing the skull. He straightened up, and spoke more like how he should.

"Surely there must be more to it than that. What are you really after?"

One word was spoken, shared by the three of us. It described the state of Skyrim, how it should be, how we were going to make it. It described our situation, and the confusion we felt.

"Peace." the three of us said simultaneously. We had not rehearsed this, as we didn't know exaclty what the Jarl was going to say. It was a spur of the moment thing, yet it felt as though we were all on the same page about this.

Silence in the room. The Jarl sat back down on his throne. He put his head on his fist, and looked out, as if distracted by something. Had our single word made him that humbled? He looked like he was thinking his life over.

"Brother, the Greybeards..." Rongar reminded the Jarl.

"What?" He looked up from his stare. "What about them?"

I spoke up, trying to get the Jarl back from wherever he was at current. "I think he's reffering to the thunderous voices that cried from High Hrothgar, Jarl Balgruuf." I tried not to let him know that I knew too much.

"Your right. I did need to talk to them about that." He sat up straight again. "Though, it seems that you might know more about it than I do, it would seem, Breton."

It was never Aaron, or Aerune. It was always Gjorna, his redguard companion Kalisi, and his Breton. Frankly I started getting pissed at that, but it made no difference. They could call me a Hagraven for all I cared. I knew who I was.

"I've studied Skyrim's history in High Rock since I was a boy." I lied. "High Hrothgar is the home of the Greybeards, is it not? Masters of a lifestyle called the Way of the Voice."

"Very knowledgeable." Balgruuf complimented. "To hear them call out, to what could only be assumed as your battle with the dragon, something must've been revealed in you three. You recall the tale of Tiber Septim?"

"Aye." I said. "You are making the connection between our fight with the dragon and the late Emperor because men called him 'dragonborn?"

"That is correct. Tales say that only a dragonborn can truly kill a dragon, by absorbing it's soul. Other than that, they are gifted with the ability to use the Voice without the great many years of training others would need." Balgruuf continued.

Jonah interrupted. "You are asking if we may be dragonborn?"

Jarl Balgruuf simply nodded.

"Perhaps we are." Kelsey said. "We will only find out one way however."

The Jarl agreed. We needed to visit High Hrothgar and speak with the Greybeards personally. It was the only way to find out. We already had enough to say that each of us were dragonborn, as we could each shout, and had, absorbed a dragon's soul.

The Jarl presented us with the opportunity to purchase property in the city, telling us that should any of us come to settle down in the city, they would be welcomed, and need only pay half price for the house and furniture. Half price, however, was still 5000 gold. Ugh. Freaking Proudspire Manor was going to cost a fortune if all the game's prices were half price.

He presented Kelsey with anything she wanted from the armory, who took a gold emerald necklace that the steward claimed would enhance the eye for using one's bow. I got Farengar to give me a few tomes to learn new spells, had a little duel with him, winning a staff in the proccess, and he told me about the College of Winterhold. Jonah was awarded the Axe of Whiterun for dealing the killing blow on Novice M. It was a drain health enchanted _ebony_ waraxe of all things. Something you wouldn't get in the game.

We crashed in the bannered mare for the night, Jonah and Kelsey asleep together while I slept on the floor. Their armor was stripped, and they had changed into clothes they bought with the reward money Balgruuf awarded us. They snored even in this world.

I couldn't sleep however. Too much was on my mind. For one, what would happen to us, how we'd get home, and what would be waiting for us there if we ever did get home. Second, I thought about if we'd even live that long. The events of Bathesda's fifth game in it's Elder Scrolls series, along with it's other games, were not times of peace and happiness. From the Oblivion Crisis, which I still agree would've been far easier for us if we got transported to _that_ game, to dragons returning in Skyrim. Danger, danger, danger.

What happened if we died in this world? A question that I don't want answered. I don't want to die, let alone have one of the others perish so that the question be answered.

A courier stopped us outside the gates of Whiterun. He was looking for me, specifically, which raised an eyebrow from the other two.

"I've got something here, your eyes only." He dug into his satchel. "Let's see here..."

What could I possibly be recieving this early? If it was the mysterious note from a friend, he should've been giving it out to all three of us, not just me personally.

"Yup, got this note. Redguard girl asked me to give it to you. Nice lady, she was." He handed me the folded sheet of paper.

"Might I ask where this redguard woman gave you this note?"

"Uh, sure. I met her on the way from Falkreath to Riverwood. She gave me some coin and walked on by."

I was confused. Who was this redguard woman? I thought of all the redguard women I could think of in the game, and yet, none came to mind.

"Well, looks like that's it. Got to go." He left us to our business, heading into the gates we just exited from. The others huddled around me as I read the note. It wasn't addressed to anyone, just being a small paragraph and signature at the bottom, written in the same handwriting.

 _You probably don't remember us, and I don't know if this will ever make it's way to your hands, but we wanted to thank you and your friends for what you've done for us. We've discussed long and hard about our lives, and we're settling down near Falkreath to raise our son or daughter. Thank you again, for giving us this oppurtunity._

 _Oleta and Crito_

A smile crossed my face as I read the names signed at the bottom of the note. I folded the note up and stuck it in my satchel, which was slung over my shoulder. It made me feel good, and I'd keep it, knowing that this was now not a video game, this was life. People could show compassion if they needed to, thankfullness, glee. They weren't pixels to me any longer. And I think for the first time, the others realized this as well.

We had made it up the steps without incident, but now we came to the tunnel where the frost troll usually would ambush you. Crumper proved to be useful when scouting the path ahead, and even now the three of us were hiding behind a large rock, waiting either the two minutes he was summoned, so I could resummon him and have him tell us what was ahead, or for him to come back on his own.

We were getting close to the count of 120. A slight shuffle in the snow. Crumper crawled around the stone we hid behind.

"There should be a frost troll up ahead, did you see one. Once for yes, twice for no."

One tap of his forelegs on the ground. Just as we thought.

"There may be a difference, Aaron." Kelsey said. I was thinking the same thing.

"Is there only one? Yes or no?"

Two taps. Shit. One was bad enough.

Jonah asked before I could. "How many are there?"

One tap, two taps, three taps, four taps. You've got to be kidding me. Four frost trolls waited up ahead for pilgrims to wander through that tunnel, only to be killed and more or less eaten.

"We can take 'em." Jonah said. "I've got a vampiric ebony waraxe."

"I have poison." Kelsey added. "Stop their regen somewhat."

"I have fire." I said. "Let's melt these bastards." I turned and waved Crumper off. "Well done." He seemed less hostile since the dragon fight. And now, he spun around tapping his fangs together, giving me the image of a dog waging his tail in my head. He fizzled out just then.

It had been about a week since we departed from Whiterun. The roads were far longer and without carriages outside the stables available everyday, we had to walk, following the signs. Since then, however, we had a lot of time to pick off animals that ran rampant on the roads, getting some serious coin whenever we sold them. Innkeepers were more than happy to pay us for firewood that Jonah and I chopped, and we made a detour to Darkwater Crossing to have a mining spree, which was more dangerous than it sounded.

Jonah now sat in steel plate armor, and had recieved a steel helmet as a reward from someone along the road we saved, who was getting chased by a troll. He still had his Axe of Whiterun, and his dwarven shield. We learned that the enchantment was indeed fire resistance.

Kelsey sat, or should I say squatted, in scaled armor, not much of an upgrade from studded, but she liked the scales shine. She had a hood to protect her face fom the howling winds up here, and thick hide boots and gloves. Her bow had gotten more of an upgrade, as she plucked an elven bow, enchanted, from the hands of a dying hunter. Poor man was hunting sabrecats, and the hunter quickly became the hunted. Enchantment is still unknown.

I'm still pretty much in the same gear, plus one dragon skull. It was a random encounter, if this was a game, and we fought him coming up the rift and into Ivarstead. I had etched a name on the forehead, just like I did Novice M.

We called him Cliffhanger, on account of how he died. He swung his tail into the ledge, and it got stuck in a hollow. He couldn't take flight or anything, and eventually gave up all hopes of trying. He spoke, though. He wanted his remains removed from the rock, and we happily oblidged.

We joked as we came to Ivarstead about Cliffhanger, saying he glitched out. Poor thing. That was never fair.

Back to the task at hand, however. Four trolls, three people. Could Jonah handle taking hits from them all though?

"You guys ready?" he asked. He had told us how it was going to happen. Similar to how we dispatched the first bandit camp after Helgen.

"Go for it, ya lunatic." Kelsey said. "Just don't get yourself killed."

Jonah stepped up, and ran into the tunnel, banging his axe against his shield, shouting obscenities. The sounds of the trolls soon came after.

Fire spells in hand, though they burnt my fingers. Kelsey aimed her bow after dipping her arrow in a white vial of poison.

"Paralysis poison?" I asked.

"If it'll give Jonah and you some time to fight only three..." I saw her point. Fighting three was better than fighting four. Then we could dispatch of the last one. Jonah came running out, followed by frost trolls, who galloped after him, sluggishly.

Kelsey released her arrow, and hit the second troll in the row. I went to work, casting Fireball after Fireball. Jonah dove out of the way. Dam burns.

Kelsey continued to fire after dipping her next two arrows in the white vial of paralysis poison. Two more went down, unable to move.

Jonah got up on his feet, and turned to swing and bash at the two remaining trolls. He stunned one, bashing it against the lower side of his head, making him stagger. Cast the Fireball. The troll flew back a dozen feet, presumably dead, and burning.

The other was easier to dispatch, as Jonah blocked an arm swing and proceeded to split the troll's skull in half. Gross and unneeded if you asked me, but he was in the zone.

The first troll that was paralyzed now was up and charging. Kelsey shot at it, not wanting it to get to Jonah. A shot in the knee, one in it's arm, one in the heart, one in it's third eye, and down it fell, remaining motionless as it was just about to reach Jonah.

The other two trolls remained motionless, still growling. We were having too much fun with this. I cast Telekenisis on a nearby boulder and hovered it above one of them, raising it before dropping it. A satisfying crunch replaced the squish I thought I would get. Jonah simply lopped the other troll's head off, one clean, decisive swing, like an executioner.

"Wait a minute." I said. I counted the troll bodies. "There were five trolls in there."

"Give it a rest, Aaron. Crumper tried his best." Jonah said, out of breath. "He probably missed one."

He was right. He might be a summon, but he was still a spider. Spiders weren't known for their intellegence. Especially here in Tamriel. We had planned, however, and we were victorious.

"Time to go greet the Greybeards." Kelsey said. I picked up the satchel from behind the rock that contained food and things for the bearded monks. Kleppit said if we were heading up the path this far, we might as well take the sack. He paid us about one hundred septims to do the task.

We pretty much raced to the steps, in awe of how big the place was. It was huge! The steps were many, and the stone was carved so delicately. I set the sack down next to the large chest and was about to lead the others up the steps when some things caught my eye.

There were two purple books with the symbol for the school of conjuration on the cover, one on top of the other. Tomes? Or were they skill books? I grabbed the first book, and flipped open the page.

It was a tome. You could tell just by the feeling when the seal was broken. But what spell was it? It was obviously one that I didn't have yet, or the tome wouldn't have opened. Believe me, I tried to open plenty of Candlelight tomes after I learned the spell. They wouldn't open for you.

Daedric writing. Instructions on making a pact with a certain creature. This was to summon one of the atronachs? If so, which one?

Something about fiery vengance, passion, and cunning. Wait. This book was to learn the spell Conjure Flame Atronach. I finished reading the final few sentences while the other two held the doors to High Hrothgar open for me to stumble into. I closed the book and turned around, holding it above my head as it dissapaited.

"Conjure Flame Atronach." I said proudly. The flame atronachs and frost atronachs were probably my favorite of the three. If only for the flame atronach's easy access during the games and the frost atronach's strength. Storm atronachs held both of the strength and range of the other two, but less so. And it was just a bunch of floating rocks. Like, why?

"Yo, that's like your favorite spell in the game, Aaron." Jonah added. I grinned. "What's the other book?" he asked, nodding to the tome under my arm.

"If I knew it wouldn't be here, would it?" I joked with him.

He nodded his head. "True, true."

"Does he have time to read it though?" Kelsey asked. She was referring to how the greybeards might take to one of the dragonborn shrugging of the meeting to read a tome. Yet the hall was empty. Candles were lit, but no one was meditating in the main room, and we heard no footsteps of the approaching greybeard.

I flipped the tome open. A spell I hadn't learnt yet. Excellent.

More deadric writing, and I had only the roughest translation to go off of for this tome. Something about a living weapon. Enemy will become ally. Very confusing. The first two pages talked about like this spell was to summon a bound weapon, yet the last page spoke as if this was a necromantic spell. Nothing will resist your influence, yet none will withstand this weapon.

I couldn't close the book until I found out what spell this was. If it disappeared before I pieced together the spell, I would lose it, and perhaps never be able to open another spell tome that contained it's spell again. Was this a bound weapon though, or was it a necromancy spell? Was it a bound weapon or a zombie spell?

I looked back at the second page. Something tipped me off. A sort of imprint on the corner of the page. A sharp imprint, sort of like a watermark, just raised. A picture of the sun? But not the sun. Nothing like that made sense in the school of conjuration.

Wait a minute. Dawnguard. Harkon's coven wanted to eliminate the sun, and through the events of the dlc in which you side with them, you have the ability to turn the sun red for a period of time. The first two pages of this tome described what spell it was, and the rough translation of the last page was perhaps a nod to the dawngaurd dlc such as we were.

A weapon conjuration spell which came with the dawnguard dlc, which you could buy from a court wizard or find in a vampiric ruin. Bound Dagger. Was it really that simple?

I closed the book, and mentally scrolled through the list of spells that I knew, a sphere of energy in my hands. The book disappaited, but I didn't need the book anymore. For, forming in my hand, piece by piece, was indeed a daedric dagger, completely see through and giving off a creepy mist.

"Guys. Look." I said. Kelsey and Jonah had been talking amongst themselves, and now turned to see what laid in my hand.

Jonah immediatley realized what it was. "That's a dawnguard spell..."

"Yup." I said.

"Wait, does this also mean that Miirak is alive as well?" Kelsey asked.

"Most likely." I told her. "Atleast we have confirmation about a few things, though it raises more questions."

I sheathed the dagger, watching it fizzle out like Cromper. Just in time to. Someone was here to speak with us.

"Dragonborn. Welcome to High Hrothgar. We have been waiting for you."


	5. Let's go to Elenwen's

"What do you mean only one of us can go to the party?" Kelsey asked Delphine. We were outside Solitude, Malborn with us. After giving ol' Dirthead the clean death he deserved and meeting Alduin again, Delphine had taken us three to Skyrim's capitol city, where we were forced to make a decision of who was going into the party.

"Three guests having slip away from the festivities would cause unwanted attention. Even if all three of you went, and only one went to gather the information, the other two's cover could still be blown. We don't need to take that many risks." Delphine addressed us.

Everyone stood silently as the weight of Delphine's words rang true. Better to do this her way, then. Yet, who was going, and who wasn't?

"Give us a moment to decide amongst ourselves, Delphine." Jonah said.

"As you wish, Dragonborn Gjorna. We have time before the party begins."

We walked up the hill a little bit before Jonah pulled Kelsey and I into a huddle.

"You heard her, guys. One person. Who's going and who's going to get to the cave entrance to wait for them? Got that frost troll to deal with, you recall."

"I want to go, but I'm not a big fan of the Thalmor." Kelsey said. "It's an opportunity to do something, but I don't know. It could either be a bloodbath or could be easily done with a disguise, but none of us are high elves."

"That leaves it between you two, Aaron and Kelsey. I can't stand Elenwen, never have. You weren't able to kill her in the game, but now that we can, I think I'll take the troll over risking my life for some stupid murder."

"Aaron. What are you thinking about? You've been extremely quiet so far." Kelsey said. I'll admit I was distracted, playing out different scenarios in my head.

There was the way of killing every thalmor agent in sight, as was the most fun, but possibly the most risky.

There was going with the disguise, but as she said, none of us were elven, so we'd be spotted almost immediatley.

And then there was the possibility of a dragon attack, which happened every so often during the game. Didn't like fighting those alone. Too much risk with that.

Kelsey would be spotted because of her skin. The thalmor might mistake Jonah as being a stormcloak because he was a nord. But a breton, a race that was extremely loyal to the empire, and especially one who knew Calm and other magicks...

"I have to go."

"What?" Jonah asked, surprised. "Go where?"

"To the party. A breton will draw less attention than a redguard or a possible stormcloak. If things get hairy, I have Calm. I can talk the professors at school to lighten up on assignments, and I'm smart enough to know when things are going to get ugly, even without the game playing in my head."

"But Aaron, that's suicide. What if the Calm spells don't work-" Kelsey almost shouted in protest.

Jonah put up an arm to silence her. "No, no. He's right. A redguard woman, especially you, missing from the party would cause a panic, and the place would be searched or something. I already said I'm not going, and being a nord amongst thalmor only adds to that. Aaron has to go." Kelsey crossed her arms. Jonah just gave her a look, and then a playful smile.

"Besides, Kels. When's the last time we spent any alone time together?" She tried to remain mad, but his smile was too much. She put her hand up to her mouth, trying not to show that she was smiling. Then she giggled.

"Fine. But we'll do that after killing the troll. Don't want it ruining our kissing." she finally said.

"Better only be kissing. Don't think that Tamriel has birth control." I joked. I was already making my way down to Delphine.

"You're the one going?" She asked it like I was unsure of myself.

"No. Just wanted to take a stroll around Tamriel. Looks like I better get going." I sad sarcastically. I took a step to her side. She tossed clothes in my face.

"Alright smart-ass. Put those on. If your going, might as well look the part. You're going to give anything you need to Malborn, got it?"

I gave a nod. Place to change, place to change. We were in the middle of the road. The cart was below us, so there was infact, no place to change. Oh well. Not the first time I had to change in public.

I threw off my hood and loosened my belt, reaching behind myself to pull my robes over my body. I kicked off my boots, and pulled down my bottoms. I took the clothes from Delphine, who I had given them to before stripping.

"You're not very shy about your body." Delphine commented. I think it was then that I realized I hadn't put on undergarments this morning. I could only imagine what Jonah and Kelsey were seeing.

"No need, Delphine. The body is nature's truest form of art." I said. I had to make something up. I couldn't tell her that I left my small clothes back at the inn to be washed. That would just be embarrassing. Ha, bare ass ing.

She kept staring as I pulled up the pants and put on the jacket. It was sort of creepy, yet sort of flattering. I tied the belt tight, slipped on the shoes she had set out, and cracked my neck as I straightened out the fabric. I slipped back on my amulet of Julianos, however, and tucked it inside the shirt. Best amulet for a mage.

She looked distracted, however. Like she was lost in thought. I didn't want to know.

"Malborn." I said.

"Yes, dragonborn?"

"Give my items to my friends. I won't be smuggling in anything. I'll just need you to open the back door."

"Are you sure?"

I laughed. "Would I have told you if I wasn't? Save me a bottle of ale, though. Gonna need something after this party's over."

He nodded and gave my robes to Kelsey. Delphine was still lost in thought. I had a feeling that certain parts of my body were, um, keeping her mind occupied at the moment.

I waved back to Kelsey and Jonah as I walked down to the cart that awaited me.

"Invitation please."

I took a step towards the thalmor guard. Male guard, adorned in guilded elven armor. Perhaps a justiciar forced to play security guard for Elenwen's party. I reached in my jacket pocket and pulled out the invitation.

"A problem?" I asked. He gave me a fake smile and handed me back the invitation.

"None at all. Please proceed into the building."

Up the steps. Not the last to arrive, as the game made us, and not the first either. Maven, Ingrod, and a few others I didn't recognized were ahead of me, and many more were behind me.

Elenwen didn't greet me at the door like in the game. She wasn't even wearing thalmor robes. Instead, she wore a long black dress, padded jacket similar to mine over top. I guess it sort of looked like a thalmor robe, if I squinted my already blurry vision. She was greeting all the guests however, and I stood next to Maven Black-Briar, who kept eyeing me suspiciously as serving girls offered the both of us ale and cheese and sweets.

"Never seen your face before." Maven started. "And I know everyone at this party. So you're either a recently wealthy man, come to Skyrim, or you're not here just to talk."

I swallowed a piece of Eidar cheese on a thinly sliced piece of bread with cuts of horker meat, and prepared myself for what I was going to say.

"Maven, please don't start. I know you are a powerful woman in Riften, and I respect you. But..." I leaned in closely and whispered into her ear. "...How would people respect you if they found out that you've been placing rats in the Honningbrew Meadery's underground tunnels?"

She took a step back, and stared at me with disgust. "How do you know about that?" she kind of whisper shouted. I just tapped my left temple.

"Don't bother calling the dark brotherhood or sending your guild after me either. I come not to take you down, but instead offer a mutually benificial deal."

She placed her one arm against the column we spoke next to, and the other on her hip. "You have my attention."

"Then I'll make it simple. A simple business deal is the best thing, yes? I know for a fact that soon, there will be a delegation between Ulfric Stormcloak and General Tullius at High Hrothgar, regarding a sort of truce for the war due to the dragons running amok everywhere." I leaned in closer now, but she did not back away.

"The dragonborn will have called the peace talks, and as negotiation, Riften and Markarth will be put up for the other side to have. Jarl Leila sides with Ulfric, correct?"

"She does, though I don't know why. He hardly seems the sort of man worthy of respect." I put up my hand to stop her from rambling, and she looked at me oddly.

"I have seen that the dragonborn will most likely side with Ulfric, and Riften will hand over Riften for access to Markarth's silver mines and an easier position to attack Solitude from. When this happens, you may or may not be called upon to take up the position."

"How interesting. How have you come by this knowledge?"

I looked around the room, trying to keep track of Elenwen. "Let's just say I have premonitions."

She let out a small laugh. "You mean like Ingrod? I don't believe you-"

"Quiet, Black-Briar!" I said with an affirm tone. It caught her off guard. "When you're offered the position, decline it. That's all I ask of you."

"Decline being Jarl of Riften? What ever could you offer besides your own head in trade of a seat of power?"

"Would you like the one on my shoulders or the other?" I asked, joking around. Again this caught her off guard. I got a more serious look on my face. "I am a mage of no small talent, and for you declining the Jarl's throne of the Rift and the city of crossed daggers, I can offer my services and much, much more."

She leaned against the column with her back, thinking the deal over.

"Reject the seat of power, in trade for a filthy minded mage, who can somehow see the future." She sounded like she didn't like the sound of the deal.

"I can give you a taste of what to expect if you'd have me in your services, if you wish."

She turned her head, and let out a sigh. "Fine, I'll play along. Tell me, oh nameless mage, something about the future."

I leaned to her ear, not wanting to draw out suspicion when the name came up.

"Ask Mercer Frey where the Guild's wealth has gone, and bring men. He'll want a fight."

With that, I leaned backwards, ate another bite of my horker, cheese, bread creation and left her with that thought. I knew that Mercer Frey had stolen the Skeleton Key from the Twilight Seplecur. He had stolen all of the Theives Guild's treasure. Whether or not he actually had yet or not in this world remained to be seen. But if Maven asked him about it, there was no doubt that he would lash out, trying to silence her, whether he had already done so or was planning on it.

I finished my food just in time for Elenwen to come and greet Maven and I.

"Ah, Maven, how are you dear. It's been far too long." She turned to the breton. "And who's this? You are one of the new guests to attend this year's party, are you not? Is he a friend of your's, Maven."

She snapped to attention. "Y-yes, Elenwen." She stammered. How very unlike Maven. "He and I have been acquainted for some time, and I believe that introductions should be made between you two."

Elenwen extended a hand, which I took. "I am Elenwen, but perhaps you knew this. This is my party after all."

I don't know exactly why I did, but I kissed her hand. On my inside I was screaming at myself, but on the outside, I was calm and collected.

"A pleasure, Lady Elenwen. I am Aerune, a scholar from High Rock. It amazed me, when Maven said she could get me an invitation to one of your wonderful parties."

Elenwen blushed. She actually freaking blushed. She withdrew her hand, and swallowed, trying not to have anyone notice. I noticed, though.

"Well, Aerune. I welcome you to the Embassy. I must get to my other guests, but perhaps we could speak another time. I'd be delighted to hear what you think about the current state of things." With that, she was off.

I leaned back, and a serving girl offered me a small tray filled with tiny cakes that looked like mini boiled cream treats. I stuffed one in my mouth and chewed on it as I looked back over at Maven, who was oddly quiet.

She was just staring at me, an eyebrow raised. "Your definately a charmer, aren't you? A mage, a scholar, and a lady's man? Is that even your real name?"

I swallowed. "Of course. Why lie to a woman of authority?"

That last sentence hit her just how I wanted it to. Something to tie my own personal deal with Maven. I had reffered to her as a woman of authority, and I had just let her know that I didn't lie to them. The things I told her were the truth, yet now we only see if she declines the position or not.

There seemed no better time to slip through the kitchen while everyone was distracted by a dance. Malborn was ready to go, and was easing his way to the kitchen door when a thalmor guard called out my name.

"Aerune." she said. I turned, acknowledging the guard. Had to keep my cover, right? Malborn gave me a look of, 'we need to get going.' I waved him off. "Mistress Elenwen has requested your presence, and I am to escort you."

Another chat? "If Lady Elenwen has summoned me, I must go." I said, more for Malborn's sake than anyone else's.

The guard lead me into the normally locked doorway, out into the hallway that connected to the kitchen.

"She's not at the party?" I asked the guard.

"Mistress Elenwen asked for you in private." she said. "She did not want to disrupt the other guests."

"The hostess away from her own party?" I joked, trying to keep the conversation going as I maped out where we were going in my head, using scenes from the game as a guide.

We climbed stairs, descended stairs, and eventually stopped before a door. I was confused as to where we were. The layout didn't match up with the game. I had no idea what room sat on the opposite side of this doorway.

"Mistress Elenwen is waiting for you inside." the guard said, before turning to leave.

I was a bit nervous. Elenwen had summoned me, away from the party, for what? Did she know that I wasn't here for the festivities? Did she know that I was a dragonborn, here to gather information on the Blades, Esbern, and Alduin? No, she couldn't possibly know. Not after her reaction to our initial meeting.

So, then what did she want?

I slowly opened the door. "You asked for me, Lady Elenwen?"

Standing there, stark naked, her back turned to me, stood Elenwen, her head turned so that her eyes sort of sparkled. The window had been drawn, a slight breeze kicking up as I opened the door, allowing air circulation. The bed was ornate, vivid shades of green and gold. She turned, slowly, as I stared her up and down, one arm holding up her breasts and the other running through the side of her hair.

"My apologies, for taking you away from the party, Aerune. After our meeting, I just couldn't help myself. These feeling washed over me like waves along the glistening sands of the beaches of the Summerset Isles. I want you..."

In my head I was thinking, _What the fuck..._ Yet, perhaps I could use this. At the same time, there was a gorgeous elven woman infront of me, and I don't know whether it was all this stress with our current situation or not, but I didn't care. I doused the light in the room, and put a single Magelight above the bed.

"A mage, yourself?" she commented.

I gestured towards the bed. "If this is what the Lady Elenwen desires, who am I to object?" I said.

Well past dark, well past the end of the party. Elenwen had passed out, and I sort of wanted to go again. It was fun. I was far from inexperienced, but just didn't have time to be in a relationship at school. Engineering took up too much time, and when I wasn't studying, I was blowing off steam with Jonah and Kelsey.

It had been awkward, at the start, the realm's tallest female race and the realm's shortest male race doing the dirty, but I got the hang of it eventually. She was far more, how to put this, I don't know, feminine, than the game had made her out to be, if that made sense. Even compared to her smokey voice, her actions over the past few hours seemed out of character.

By the gods did she like making noise though. At first, it was like little sighs, and then after a while full blown screams. I would never get the sound out of my head.

I needed to go, however. I had things to do. I climbed out of the bed and put back on my clothes, and reached for the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" Elenwen said. I glanced back. She had her head propped up by her arm, the covers slipping off from her breasts. I tried not to look at them, as they were distracting me from what I had to say.

"Lady Elenwen." I began. "While the time we spent together has been miraculous, I don't think I should be here when the dawn comes." She raised an eyebrow. "Think of the word that would travel back to the Summerset Isles, back to the ears of your higher ups. Their embassador sleeping with a breton? Rumors might get started, and if someone perhaps slipped in that you slept with a Talos worshiper..."

"But you already told me that you do not worship the false god Talos." she started to protest.

"Yet, Lady Elenwen, others do not know this about me, and as such, if you were caught fornicating with a Talos worshiper instead of arresting him, you might get demoted, replaced. You'd never see me again. I leave now for both of us."

The words seemed to echo, as she understood. She got up, embraced me one final time, my head between her breasts. This made me feel rather short. I was fucking 6'2" in real life. Now I was fourteen inches shorter. I would've still been shorter than her, but I wouldn't be this short.

"Will I ever see you again?" she asked.

"One day, yes." I thought of the Season Unending quest, and how she showed up for the peace talks. "Though, you will not know it."

With that, I slipped out the door with a book on Esbern hidden in my pants. It was the one on the desk, and I had used Telekenisis while in the act to hide it in my clothes. A difficult task, as sex drains one's magicka something awful.

Time to go to the Solace and get the other two books and release the prisoners.

"What's taking him so long?" Kelsey said, waiting nervously. It was dark out, and she and I had been sitting in this dark cave for hours. Surely he couldn't have gotten caught. Aaron was smarter than that. He was the smartest of us three. Kelsey had been pacing for about an hour now. I sat after rolling the dead troll corpse outside, near the lamp that was in the deepest part of the cave.

"Calm down Kels. I'm sure he's fine. He's not an idiot. Plus he's got magick on his side." This didn't seem to calm her down.

"What if he's dead! Thalmor are far more gifted than bretons in magick." She was angry, looking down, mumbling to herself. I just sat there, playing with the puzzle box we had found weeks ago. Dam thing was complicated, but I figured out how it was _supposed_ to open. The two segments that were missing were used to move the other pieces around. A picture had to be formed, and then, holding the locks, you had to twist the bottom half. Atleast, that's how it looked like it should be opened. Whoever designed this was some sort of genius, even by real world standards.

"And if this was the time that a dragon decided to show up! What could he possibly do against a dragon and not blow his cover!" She flailed her arms. Her bow was on her back, along with her quiver. She'd been like this since Aaron began running late.

It was another ten minutes of her ranting about Aaron's safety before we heard noises coming from the tunnel above. I picked up my axe and shield and Kelsey readied her bow.

"Go, go, go. I have friends at the end of the tunnel. Leave this place. Go, go!" It was Aaron, yelling at someone. A short man with long blonde hair jumped down from the ledge, and ran out the cave. I recognized him, he was the prisoner the thalmor were questioning in the game.

Then an argonian jumped down, who I didn't recognize. Then a redguard man, and a bosmer girl who looked about the age of fourteen. These last three were all prisoners?

Finally, Aaron jumped down, looking worse for wear. His brown hair which woul normally be trimmed to sit just above his ears in the real world now sported a braid, which hung from his face as he got to his feet. Sharp brown eyes, and though he usually kept clean shaven, here he was growing a bit of a goatee. He wore glasses too, but I guess they didn't have them in skyrim. His vision must be horrific. A few times I caught him missing projectiles, and he claimed it was because the opponent moved, but I knew. He was nearsighted. He had missed because he couldn't see them clearly.

"What happened? Why are you all in such a rush?" I asked Aaron. He just waved, catching his breath.

Kelsey handed him his clothes, which he slipped on over his party outfit. "I'll...tell you...later..." he said through gasps. Sticking out of the back of his pants were a stack of three books. Red, binded like a journal.

The reports Delphine needed. Wait, weren't there supposed to be four? Or was it my imagination? I grabbed the journals either way and patted him on the back. He looked bushed.

I gave him what Malborn had left for him. A case of ale. He took one and chugged it, coughing as he finished.

"Gods. Tastes like a mixture of watered down beer, fish oil, and vomit." he said. He and I were both twenty one, though here we looked older. We'd gone down to the local club on both of our birthdays, and we both knew what alcohol tasted like, though we didn't make it a habit. We had things to do. I was trying to be a professional soccer, or futball player, and he wanted to be an engineer, and design the newest products. We couldn't afford hangovers and being drunk.

"That bad, huh?" Kelsey said. "Sounds like a blast." Ha, sarcasm. Loved it. Loved her.

"We do need to get going, though. Delphine took a carriage back to Riverwood after you left. We'll need to start walking, or wait in Solitude for the next one."

"I vote staying." he said. "About time I got to sleep in an actual bed."

"So, to the Winking Skeever, then?"

"Sure." they both answered me.


	6. Confiding in Stentor

It was about noon, and Jonah and Kelsey had already left for Riverwood to deliver the information to Delphine. I wanted to get some tomes from Solitude's court wizard, perhaps learn a bit more about destruction magick from her. They said, during this morning's discussion, that it sounded like a grand idea, but not to dally, as we were to all meet up at the temple to prepare for Season Unending.

I had tracked down a courier, bosmer girl, who was waiting just outside my inn room, waiting on my last letter to be signed. I had written three. One to Delphine, explaining my absence, and describing the results of the party. One to Maven reminding her of my offer, and warning her to keep a tight grip on her guild. One to Oleta and Crito, the bandit couple that had wrote to me, giving them two thousand septims out of my own purse to help them settle down, as a gift.

I walked up to the courier, and saw the same look that Elenwen had when we first met. I told the bosmer girl who each letter was for, the safest way to get there, by the game's standards, and tipped her seventy septims. She'd need them, for she would be traveling all over the place.

"You know..." she said, rather, distractingly. "I'd love for you to order me around like that someplace more...private."

Um. What? First Elenwen couldn't control herself around me, and now some random bosmer courier also was getting the same ideas. I couldn't have been that charming. Maven didn't think anything of me. Delphine thought of me as any of the other dragonborn. Why was it only elven women that couldn't control themselves around me?

"Relax." I said to her. "Do as I asked, as I employed you for, and should I ever be in Solitude again, I promise you'll get what you want."

She whispered something that made me lightheaded into my ear. I dare not repeat it. Then she left the Winking Skeever.

I placed one hand on my hip and used the other to scratch the back of my head. What was I digging myself into?

"Sibylle Stentor?" I asked the woman wrapped in court mage robes.

She didn't even turn around, messing with a few items and soul gems in her laboratory, which was her bedroom. "I am she. What do you require?"

"Knowledge."

She began to turn around. "Try the College, then. I hear that they're always looking for new students." She went back to what she was doing.

She was stubborn, just like in the game. I think I might try something. In the game, tons of suggestive dialogue gave one the impression that Stentor might actually be a vampire, though she never acknowledged it. I think I would see if this was true.

"Vampire." I coughed to cover up the word. She still heard it though, and turned almost immediately.

"What did you say?" Her voice was slightly angry, slightly scared. Perhaps all the proof that I needed.

I waved, greeting her. "Glad I got your attention. Now, back to what I can do for you..." I jangled a coin purse containing about 640 septims in it. She got what I meant. Money was a universal language, after all.

"What did you have in mind?" she asked. It was faint, but I could see it in her eyes. They were altered, and though she never spoke with a fully opened mouth, rather speaking as if she barely moved her lips, it looked like her teeth were slightly longer than needed.

"Knowledge. Preferably about the school of destruction."

"What could I teach you that you couldn't learn at the college?" Another redirection, though her eyes now focused on mine.

I waved Telekenisis and made a soul gem float towards my hand. "I respect Faralda, but though the college is more free form than the Mage's Guild, there's only so much one can learn there. Especially if one's intentions are somewhat, chaotic."

"You're looking to me for what purpose, then? There are plenty of mages outside the College that would no doubt be bought like a simple street woman."

I flipped the soul gem in my hand. I tucked the coin purse back into my satchel. "So it would seem. Yet, for what knowledge I seek, the person who teaches me would need to have been alive far longer than an ordinary breton could reach."

She crossed her arms. "My knowledge has been obtained through vigorous study and application. Are you accusing me of somehow prolonging my life expectancy?"

I smiled, trying to get back to what I wanted to. "Vampirism would do that, wouldn't it?"

She puffed out her chest and eyed me like a sabrecat eyes a deer. "You have my attention."

So, the subtle hints that the game gave us, at least here, were correct. Stentor's knowledge of the school of destruction probably had come from study and application, but she had many more years to apply her knowledge.

"A duel, Stentor. That's all I need from you. Non lethal, yet don't hold back. The duel goes until the other forfeits. I win, you teach me for the next three days. I lose...

"You'll have someone to snack on, and possibly a thrall."

The wheels in her head began turning, I could see it. The second wizard duel I would participate in, but it might be my last. Someone as gifted in the school of destruction as Stentor was, you don't take lightly. Farengar was easy to win against. He never used wards to absorb spells, instead constantly moving. One nasty Firebolt took care of him.

It'd be interesting to see how Stentor fought, though. She was perhaps the most advanced of the court wizards, save the old man in Markarth.

"Where would we be dueling?" she asked.

I gave a nod to the hallway, where Jarl Elisif, Falk Fire-beard, and the others were, dealing with the Solitude captain of the guard.

We moved there now, Stentor telling everyone what was about to happen.

"Everyone, clear out. An issue concerning Solitude's welfare has been addressed to me, and this man has challenged me to a simple, non-lethal duel to rectify it. I need everyone to please, clear the room."

They didn't waste time asking questions, as I had already taken out my Lightningbolt staff from it's holster on my back and twirled it in my fingers. She had her spells prepared in her hands already. Alteration spell and a lightning spell. My free hand was ready to cast the next three spells, one right after the other.

Conjure Familiar.

Stoneflesh.

Steadfast Ward.

"Ready to proceed, Stentor?" I asked, pacing opposite her, as we sort of danced in a circle. "The duel goes until either her or I forfeits, or are unable to continue. Death is a possibility, even in a non-lethal duel, though great shame would befall the victor should that happen, and most likely jail or a beheading. These are the terms both of us have agreed to."

"Falk." Stentor commanded. "Whenever you deem proper, you call the duel to begin."

He stammered. "Uh, o-of course, Sibylle."

I twirled the staff in my hands, continuing my endless walk to the right. I was getting nervous. Death was a possibility. I could be throwing my life away for simple teachings that I could get if I went to the college. But I didn't want to go to the college. She was perhaps my least favorite court wizard when this was a game, and I wanted to learn from her. I had challenged her to a duel because I also wanted to kick her ass as well. But, was this the right thing to do? Throw my life away because of some revenge fantasy based on a video game?

Time seemed to slow to a crawl. It seemed as if the only things that continued to move, however slow we were, were my opponent and I, though we moved at a snail's pace. I was sweating already. Even back when I worked on projects for my engineering course, I sometimes felt this. Nerves racking up and then to be released once Falk started the bout.

"Begin!"

I jumped backwards, seeing her do the same, summoning my little Crumper to distract her while I prepared my defenses. He lunged at Stentor, though she moved to the side.

Stoneflesh was cast, and I was quickly trying to remember the right attunment for Steadfast Ward. Her lightning spell was Chain Lightning, and I got the ward up just before it struck at my abdomen.

I aimed the staff at her, and it fired itself. It hit, and she had been too slow to change from her flesh spell to a ward. She shrugged off the magick and shot her lightning at Crumper, who disappaited almost instantly.

Back to the circle walking. I didn't know how much magicka she had expelled, though I was already getting tired from absorbing the Chain Lightning. She didn't know this, however.

Another shot from my staff, and she absorbed it with her own ward.

"You are quite gifted, to be able to fire off so many spells in quick succession." she said from across the room.

"Thank you. You are quite strong, to shrug off a hit like it was nothing."

"Staves are less powerful than actual magick. Surely it wouldn't be a burden simply to summon the energy from your hands."

"Never liked how lightning made my fingers feel."

She fired a fire spell, which exploded upon impacting my ward. The ward broke. Fireball. I waved away the remaining flames, as not to burn the palace down. Magicka wasted, but this was a non-lethal bout. We didn't need deaths on our hands.

It was magicka that I needed, and she would be recovering her's rather quickly. She had a flesh spell and a ward. I'd need to break them both if I had any hopes of winning.

I swapped my left hand's spell to Ice Spike. She noticed, and fired spells at me, which I swiftly dodged, having to move back rather than forward. She was preparing to throw more fire at me, both of her hands now fire spells.

Perfect opportunity. Three quick successive shots of Ice Spike. The first two hitting her ward, which she swapped back to, the second shattering it. The third shot hit her flesh spell, exploding as it does when it touched it, and she staggered back. I fired exactly one shot of my staff before her flesh spell broke.

"Enough! Enough..." she said, gasping. She was drained. Lightning spells still did a number on wizards. Good to know.

I walked over to her, extending a hand to help her up. She took it, and I pulled her up to her feet. For the next three days, she would be teaching me all that she could. Though, we hadn't agreed upon how exactly she would do that yet. It was fine, though. Just like Farengar had awarded me this staff, she would keep her word and teach me.

Sundown. Stentor and I were out in the castle garden, where we had been meeting to practice together for the last two days. Today was the third and final day of our deal, before I had to leave Solitude and make my way to Sky Haven Temple.

Though it was difficult, and really painful, Sibylle was an excellent teacher. She taught me Blizzard, and to some effect, Chain Lightning. She also had tomes available to me that she no longer needed, and from these I picked up Close Wounds, Summon Frost Atronach, and the rune spells.

Tonight we were practicing the final area of effect destruction spell, Fireball, as she said mine lacked the explosive impact that it was supposed to have. The other two aoe spells came easily to me, as Blizzard was my favorite destruction spell and Chain Lightning was rather like Lightningbolt, just more focused on more targets.

I warded, and Stentor threw her Fireball at me. It exploded, though it didn't impact the area I was in.

"That is how it's supposed to be. Raw power beautifully expelled by your magicka to detonate into a flaming pyre upon impact. Your's lacks the power, though everything else about your spell remains flawless."

The ward ran out, and Stentor waved out the flames around me. I sat down, exhausted. She'd been trying to make this point to me for the last few hours, and I needed sleep. But this was the only time her courtly duties had time to spare. That, and I don't think she'd like to have been weakened by the sunlight, though she has neither fully confirmed, or denied, being a vampire. Still, I only have the little hints.

She walked over to me, kneeling on the cobblestone. "You have great potential, Aerune. Your magick is grand, but you lack the focus to turn your offensive spells into what they truly could become."

I scratched at my jaw. "I'm great with most of the schools. Illusion, conjuration, alteration, those schools are easy for me to grasp. Destruction and restoration seem to be my weak points."

"Not entirely true. Your missle spells strike well enough, and your wards are far superior to any I've seen or even used."

I leaned against the street, eventually laying down. I looked up at the stars. The two moons were easily visable.

"Something is still bugging you, my student. What is it?" Perhaps it was because I was exhausted, or perhaps it was because I needed to get it off my chest, and Jonah and Kelsey weren't here, but I told her what was on my mind.

"I'm not from Tamriel." I said.

She raised an eyebrow, pulling down her hood, revealing her glowing eyes and dark hair. "Go on." Not the response I thought I would get, but still I felt as if I told her everything, I might get ran out for being a loon or thrown into the dungeon.

"There's a place, past the void, past all the realms of Oblivion, where I used to dwell. In this place, I watched events of Tamriel's history unfold, from the Oblivion Crisis, to Tiber Septim conquering and uniting the lands. Yet only weeks ago, I woke up on the back of a wagon headed for Helgen. There were others with me, two others that I knew.

"And then Alduin, the Eater of Worlds, appeared, destroying Helgen as Ulfric was to be executed. We escaped, obviously, and then we made our way to Whiterun, where we killed a dragon. Since then, we've been known as dragonborn."

"Are you dragonborn?" Stentor interrupted. She wasn't put off by the fact that I was claiming to practically be from another dimension.

I looked up at the sky, and uttered the simple phrase.

"Jol!" A wave of energy erupted from my person, forming into a fiery ring that dispersed once it reached about ten feet out.

"With Alduin returning, the others and I know what we must do. But at the same time, we are foreigners, and want to return back to our own realm, so to speak. We fight because we know what will happen if we don't, yet we don't know how we got here, or even how to return."

"Then there's nothing you can do. For some reason, you were bound to this point in Tamriel's history. You are exactly what this realm needs, when it needs it. So, simply let the river take you. To be placed on that cart, right before the return of the dragons...

"Perhaps over your lives here, should whatever it was that you were bound here for be finished, you would return to your own realm. If not, and you finish out your days here, then so be it. Perhaps you are too focused on what you need to do, that it's blinding you from what _has to_ happen."

With that, she stood. I leaned my head up to look at her, as she began walking back to the palace.

"I do think that our deal is over, Aerune. You have been a marvel student. You have bigger things ahead of you. I wish you luck, and will aid you in any way I can."

Something caught in my mind before she opened the door to the palace.

"Sibylle."

She stopped. "Yes?"

"Has a farmer from Dragonsbridge came to the court asking about Wolfskull cave?"

She looked confused. "Not recently, no. But there have been reports of odd lights and sounds from that area."

I sat up, and turned to her. "Necromancers are trying to raise and summon Potema, or they soon will be. Don't dismiss the farmer's plea. Or things will get as ugly as a horker's stomach, extremely quickly."


	7. The Trip to Sky Haven

I hate trolls. I really do. I've been walking from Solitude, headed towards the Reach, now passing through Morthal. A path through the swamp, and of course, two freaking trolls are sitting on the path up ahead, eager to prey on passing people, deer, anything.

Ottumfyre, Autumn-Fire, as she called herself, the flame atronach I am able to summon, stood behind me, waiting to either return to her plane of existance or fight. Much more obidient than Crumper was when I first summoned him.

"Your strategy, master?"

I was thinking. One troll at a time I could handle, but without Jonah here to keep their attention, they would close in on me before I was able to melt both of them down. And Autumn-fire wasn't able to take a hit without fizzling out. Perhaps that was just because I had trouble with conjures. First Crumper never listened to me, now I can't keep Autumn-Fire to stay through a fight.

"It's not like I can't take them." I said. "But I can only take one at a time, safely."

"I understand. A distraction, perhaps?"

"No. I don't know of any that would work. And I'm not going to use you for that, as I don't want to cause you any pain."

"Pain only means that I am serving well, Master." She spun around, similar to her idle animation in the game.

I knew that she was my only ticket to either slipping by them or taking them down. I slouched against the stump we were behind, Autumn-fire herself covered by some trees. I cast Stoneflesh.

"Master has a plan?"

I nodded, and pointed for her to move to the east. She followed, and the trolls saw her and follwed her through the water.

Fireball in hand, I dual casted it continuously until both trolls lay dead on the water.

She had fizzled out in that time, and I resummoned her again. She gave me a smile, something I never knew they could do until I summoned her the first time.

"Master is not harmed?" I shook my head, telling her that I was not. "Then Ottomfyre has done Master proud." She flipped.

A young woman in shrewd golden clothing leaned against the wall of the Moorside Inn. I was walking up to her slowly, looking as her eyes. Golden, similar to Sibylle's but far more progressed. She had not eaten well.

It was dusk, and the vampire was out, seeking her next victim.

"Alva, I presume?" I asked the vampire woman.

"Yes?"

I looked at the burnt down home down the way. Perhaps I shouldn't. No, she would die anyway. I made a smile at Alva, making sure my hood was over my eyes. In my hand I had summoned a dagger, but she couldn't see it. She was looking at my smile, after all.

One swift, quick motion. She leaned over, and I could feel the spectral blade tearing up into her ribs. She cried out, at first as a woman, then something more came out, and the veins in her face contorted, and her teeth grew to their full length.

The dagger fizzled, and I let her roll down the stairs. People had seen, as there was no way to avoid it. They ran to get the town guards, and I saw them aim their bows.

I quickly reached inside the only place I could think that she would hide her key. Inbetween her breasts and her dress, and was rewarded with the feeling of a warm metal, smaller than two fingers. But I had to go.

I summoned my frost atronach, a rather quiet tyrant, whom I named Gjor. He shrugged off the arrows, and went on a rampage.

"No killing, Gjor!" I shouted.

He obeyed. Though like all my other summons, he had his own flaw. He didn't last as long as the other summons. Thirty seconds. But that's all I would need.

Dashing to Alva's house, I kicked open the door, and shut it behind me. Hrogar attacked me, but a simple Calm spell put him at ease, and I disarmed him. I went down to the cellar, using the key, where Alva's coffin sat, along with her journal.

I flipped it open to about halfway, skimming. Time was of the essence. Movarth was mentioned. That's all I needed. I folded the corner of the page and went out to surrender.

The guards accepted my surrender, taking from me Alva's journal and binding my wrists. Gjor had long since fizzled out, but had bought me the time I needed. I was brought before Jarl Ingrod, forced to kneel.

"You have caused quite the disturbance tonight. Explain yourself! At once!" she commanded me.

I had to be cautious. Ingrod saw me at the party last week, and would no doubt recognize my face, should they remove my hood.

"It's all in the journal." I said.

"Journal? What journal?"

One of the guards handed Jarl Ingrod the journal I took from Alva's coffin. Ingrod began reading it, or perhaps skimming it. She got to the page I marked.

"So, Alva ordered the fire? And the journal mentions Movarth. A vampire I had thought long destroyed. But why kill Alva? What did that accomplish?"

"Alva had the key to where this journal lies on her person. Had I obtained the key through other means, she would likely have warned Movarth, and as dangerous as he is, would've killed her anyway. It was inevitable, Jarl Ingrod." I showed some of the game's plot, but not all of it. I had completely bypassed Helgi's ghost, Lanette, and accepting the quest in the first place.

Ingrod continued reading, and then closed the journal. "As Jarl, I must punish anyone who commits a crime, yet it seems as though your actions were justified, however they were still illegal. I will personally see to Movarth's destruction this time, but as for you...

"I can't rightly do anything, could I? A mage of your talent would be more of an asset to the city of Morthal than a threat."

Her steward spoke up. "Perhaps a night in the dungeon, Ingrod? It would appease the people to see him recieve punishment, and when he's released we could explain why he was being set free."

She took that Jarl stance, where she slouched in her throne, left arm lifted to slightly beside her head, the other arm hung over the arm of the throne. "Yes. Yes, you're right. You will remain in the dungeon until Movarth is dealt with, then you will be released. Not a moment before."

I hung my head. "I understand."

On the road again, making my way through the Reach to Sky Haven Temple. I had just come out of Karthwasten, expecting to deal with some Silver-blood mercenaries, but they were already gone. Perhaps Jonah and Kelsey had come through this way.

I was using my staff as a walking stick, making my way over a bridge. It was a beautiful morning. The sounds of birds echoed through the canyon, and the wind blew at the trees as if it were bending candle flames. Truly peaceful.

I would arrive at the temple on schedule, if I kept walking through tonight. I could rest at the temple, though I did not relish the idea of sleeping on a stone bed. More than that, I was eager to see my friends again. It had been almost a week, and I for one was eager to hear thier voices again.

A rustling in a nearby grove, not caused by the wind. I expected to see a sabrecat, a troll, perhaps a forsworn. Instead, it was a white fox. It ran away from me, over the bridge I had just crossed.

A fox. How adorable. You know, something about it put me off though.

A white fox. Here in the Reach. No, this was a set up for an ambush or something. It was far too warm for their pelts to be white, and there hardly was any snow, even near Solitude this time of year. This fox had been trained and brought from Dawnstar, Winterhold, or Windhelm.

"Turn around and hand over all your valuables." It was a girl's voice. "Drop the staff, too." Same voice. I dropped the staff, putting my hands up as if I was being arrested. I turned to the thief.

Elven. Dark elf. Light blue skin instead of the more common shades of black. Piercing red eyes behind a hood. Hide armor, leather bracers and boots. She held an elven dagger in her right hand, and her left hand was empty. Almost immediatley I imagined the dialogue options in my head. But quickly just said the first thing to come to mind.

"Do you really want to fight?"

There was no response, as customary. She ran at me, quicker than I anticipated. She leapt upwards, and I only had time to use one spell. A freaking ward spell. She waited for the spell to disappait, yet she had me pinned, her body pinning mine on the cobble roadway. She looked pissed.

And yet I couldn't do anything. One of her legs pinned my right arm, and at this short distance, if I cast any magic with my left hand, she would slice me open before the spell finished.

She aimed the dagger at my neck, a scowl on her face the entire time. I had messed up, casting the ward instead of an offensive spell, and now I was going to pay for it. Without my Stoneflesh, the dagger would cut through me like butter, instead of bouncing off my skin.

"Just do it." I said. "I've had a fufilling life so far." I closed my eyes in anticipation of my death.

But it never came.

The clang of the dagger hitting the street beneath me, and I opened my eyes to watch the dark elven theif bend down and kiss my lips. She changed her position, cradling my face with her hands as her tongue invaded my mouth. Both my arms were free, and she was scooching her butt down my abdomen.

This was starting to get ridiculous. First Elenwen, then the courier, and now a thief who not two seconds earlier wanted to kill me and steal my things. All of them elven, all of them doing sexual things with me. Elenwen and I actually did have sex, the courier whispered those vulgar bedroom terms to me, and now this girl was tonguing me after wanting to rob me.

What the fuck was going on?

I pushed her off of me for a moment. "What's gotten into you? Not two seconds ago I was getting robbed, now I'm getting affectionately mauled."

She leaned back, her thingy on my thingy, though we were both fully clothed. She waved herself off as if she were hot. "I don't know. I can't help it. I just want you insi-"

I put a finger to her mouth to stop her from finishing that sentence. I waved a Calm spell with my other hand, but nothing worked. She leaned back down and began biting my neck. Fuck it. I didn't have the slightest idea why elven women got this way towards me, but I didn't care. Sex is fun.

After taking me back to her campsite, where the white fox lay waiting obediently, and doing the dirty, she laid naked in her tent, devastated, and crying. I asked if she was alright, and she said it was from what I did, and how much she enjoyed it. I spent several hours at her camp, debating to see if I would still make it on time, or if I could spend the night here and still make it.

She did tell me why she changed her attitude so quickly, however. Painting a vivd picture that I was able to connect all three elven women to.

Apparantley, it was my eyes. She had all the intent of intimidating me out of every coin and item I had, until the ward dissappeared and she saw my eyes clearly. It was almost hypnotic, she said. I recalled back to making eye contact with Elenwen and the courier. That's when their attitudes shifted as well. Elenwen blushed, and the courier had shifted her position soon after we began speaking.

That's a laugh and a half. Here I am, not being able to see anything past ten feet except for blurry colors and fuzzy shapes, yet I have hypnotic eyes. Irony. Though, it seemed it only worked on elven women, as Sibylle and I had been close enough for the effect to take multiple times, Maven and I were always that close at the party, and Delphine and I were almost face to face during the Dirthead fight twice.

So why was it only elven women? And if it _was_ only elven women, then I should most likely stay away from the Temple of Dibella in Markarth.

I had to be careful though. Elven women didn't have many offspring, and if I could believe all the books I read during my time playing the Elder Scrolls series, though they weren't usually ready to be mothers in their youth, constant pairing with non-elven men would bring them to bear children early. Pretty much what I learned after reading _The Real Barenziah_. There was a lot of other things I learnt from the random books strewn throughout the games, like the Orc's downfall of Orsinium, why Khajiit's smile duing combat, and just about everything the game threw at me.

I realized I hadn't even gotten the girl's name. I probably didn't need it, as I would most likely never see her again.

It was well past dark, however, and I didn't relish the thought of rounding a corner in the dark only to be whatever lie around the bend's midnight snack. I would stay the night here, and make way in the morning.

The fire was dying, and I waved a hand to engorge the flames. The white fox yarped at the magic. I looked back at the sleeping dunmer. Golden hair, braided, fell loosely around her head. I tried not to look at her body, but I couldn't help it. She had goosebumps. She was cold. Her blanket was slipping off.

I physically got up and slipped the blanket back up to her chin, before laying down next to the fire. Not the most comfortable spot to fall asleep, but not the least comfortable either. I had slept on hard wooden floors, piles of hay, rocks, and only once, and actual bed. Sleeping against the ground was fine for now.

The smell of smoke. It took me a while, but I recalled the previous day's events. I picked my head up, originally wanting to sit up, but something laid ontop of me. It was the dunmer girl, no longer naked, but asleep on my body.

I had to go though. From the position of the sun I was running late. I was supposed to be a good distance down the road already. I knew staying here was a bad idea, but I was tired. My arms were probably the only thing I could move, as I tucked them behind my head before passing out.

She was rather immobile as it was. She didn't move, no matter how much I tapped at her.

"Dunmer girl. Come on, get up. I have to be somewhere soon." She didn't stir. I put my hands to my face. "Gods, this isn't happening."

And then it just sort of happened. I meant to swear, but instead shouted.

"Fus Ro Dah!"

A great wave of energy emitted from my being, and the cracking thunder echoed throughout the cannons. The thundering sound definately woke the dunmer girl, and forced the white fox to flee to the tent. She stummbled back on her ass, her eyes wide at what had just happened.

And then it was very faint, but carried on the winds. At first, I thought it was just an echo of my own shout, but echos don't make their own echos. Two more bursts of thunder, from the eastern direction that I needed to travel. Jonah and Kelsey.

"Dragonborn." the dunmer girl said. I turned my head to her, and she placed her head to the ground, displaying respect. "I-I'm deeply sorry if my actions have kept you from something important, Dragonborn. Had I known sooner..."

I placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright. No harm done. Had I indeed proved that I was dragonborn when we first met, you might not be here this morning." She looked up, her golden braids falling from her face. "Besides, not every girl in Tamriel can claim that they've slept with a dragonborn." I said, standing up. Telekenisis to grab my staff, and I set out down the hill.

"Take care of yourself!" I yelled back as I made my way down the road from her camp site.


	8. INTERJECTION

**HI!** It's me, the author of the story! Glad you're enjoying the fan-fiction so far. Writing this was hella fun, and I'm continuing the last few chapters as we speak, however, I have some bad news.

I'm going to have to put ** _From Game to Fame_** on hold a while. While I am still writing the story, all of the chapters I currently have written are on my usb, which has gone missing. I would upload them straight from the original computer I wrote them on, but that laptop is a decade old and doesn't cooperate any longer.

So, sorry for this little update. Real life goes on and such. Feel free to favorite the story, so when I can resume my bi-weekly updates, you'll be able to access the story almost instantly. Drop some feedback as well. I'd be interested in hearing from my fellow authors about things I could've done different to make certain chapters play out smoother, or from all those Elder Scrolls players out there about my take on certain things. Like the wizard duels or these charmed eyes of Aaron's. Boon or bane?


	9. The REAl Chapter 8

**I am proud to say that I've fixed the issues adressing the story. So, I'm going to release the rest of the first part of the story. Without anything else to say, enjoy. :D**

* * *

I didn't really like riding horses, but General Tullius insisted that it would be faster than walking, or waiting for a carraige. It was time, time for the peace talks. We had recovered the Elder Scroll, without having to enter the College of Winterhold, mind you, and fought Alduin, sending him to Sovenguarde, where he grew stronger, feeding off of the souls there.

It had been two months since we arrived at Helgen in this twisted warped realm. Our skills as dragonborn were far more than the game could ever hold, and our power as a team of combatants was unmatched. Believe me, other mercenary groups challenged us. Some were killed, some forfeited before their demise.

We needed the war to come to a standstill so that we could trap Ohdaviing. From there, we'd make our way through the temple, and enter sovenguarde, and have a final showdown with Alduin. After the talk with Sibylle, all those moons ago, we hoped that doing this would send us home. And so, Kelsey and I were dispatched from High Hrothgar to get General Tullius and Ulfric Stormcloak to meet for diplomatic reasons under the banner of the dragonborn.

I wore a simple black robe, similar to Expert Robes, but not quite. A cowl covered my face, as both General Tullius and Elenwen would recognize me if I didn't. Tullius would try to have me imprisoned for murdering the Helgen executioner, and Elenwen would no doubt wish to do physical things that I did not have the time for.

I pictured myself as the grim reaper, staff holstered on my back, dressed in all black clothing. Behind me rode Legate Rikka, in a more fitting suit of imperial armor than she wore in the game. She wore no helmet, however, and she wanted it that way. People would know who she was.

Tullius rode behind her, dressed as himself. He looked older than pixels and code could make him look however, on the later side of the scale it would seem.

Behind Tullius rode Balgruuf, for whom this meeting was called. If he was to lend his castle as a trap for a dragon, he wanted to be at the peace talks, and actually rode with me to Solitude to convince Tullius to attend.

Bringing up the rear was Elenwen, which I was thankful for. Better than her riding directly behind me, that is. Tullius had sent a missive to her, and she, like in the game, wanted to make sure nothing that broke the White-Gold Concord was signed.

We were approaching Ivarstead now, having detoured to Riften for the night, where I paid a visit to Maven Black-Briar, who finally accepted the deal. She had told me about how the engagement with Mercer Frey went, and he was publically executed shortly after running mad trying to kill her. She said that she wouldn't accept the throne, but that I was her personal magical advisor. She handed me the Skeleton Key Mercer was carrying. I would return it to the Twighlight Seplecure once the peace talks were done.

"Everyone, dismount. Leave your horses at the inn. The 7,000 steps are not passable on horse back." I ordered. They respected my authority on this matter. Over the past two months, I think I've changed, possibly for the better in this place.

Everyone dismounted, and I paid the innkeeper to keep the horses fed until we were back to claim them. Through Ivarstead we marched, until I got to the bridge, where I put out a hand for the others to stop. I had to send the signal that we were at the base of the mountain.

I tilted my head back, and let out that thunderous power.

"Fus Ro Dah!"

It seemed as if the very ground around me shook. It echoed in the air. From about halfway up the mountain, I heard a reply shout. I listened to the echos for who it was. It was Kelsey. So, Ulfric and his crew were already here.

Another shout from further up. Jonah was most likely there, awaiting our arrival. He had been preparing High Hrothgar with the greybeards, this last few days.

I walked forward. "Single file, keep to the steps. Any enemies should be cleared off the path by now, but be ready."

Up the steps I began, looking down at my entourage. The Imperial commanders, Balgruuf and Elenwen.

"I fight, so that all the fighting I've done already hasn't been in vain." Ulfric was giving his speech to Tullius, though usually that one is reserved for when the player went to join the Stormcloaks. A side conversation he had with Galmar.

"Interesting speech. Did you get your lackeys to write it for you?" Tullius backlashed.

Delphine slammed her fist on the table. "Enough! We came here to call a truce and before we even start you two are at each other's throats."

The three of us, Jonah, Kelsey and I, each sat in our darkened armors, watching. Kelsey and Jonah had managed to work ebony ingots into armor, white markings painted on the masks for effect. It gave them an ominous look. I sat on Jonah's left, on the Imperial side, while Kelsey sat on Jonah's right, on the Stormcloak side. We chose black outfits for the peace talks because black represents authority, command, respect. We each wore two amulets. One of talos, and one of whatever other diety we chose. Something the game limited. I wore my Julianos, Jonah wore Stendaar, and Kelsey wore an amulet of Mara. Not as a symbol to get married, but as a disciple of love and peace, as she wanted to be seen.

Elenwen had been allowed to stay, though it made me a little empty inside that she didn't put up a fight about it.

I cast Magelight to bring everyone's attention to the dragonborn. Jonah began.

"Ulfric, Tullius. Alduin, the World Eater has returned, and been banished, but he is not gone. Even now, he flies through Sovengaurde, devouring the souls of the men and women who fight for your sides. He draws strength from this, and yet you two would continue to give him strength by needlessly sacrificing soilders."

They fell silent. Galmar looked like he was about to say something, but Ulfric stopped him. "Their sacrifice is to bring peace to Skyrim, dragonborn. To rid it of it's ancient shackles-"

"To become what?" I interrupted. "Should Alduin succeed at what he's attempting to do, there won't be a Skyrim to free. There won't be an Empire to fight, there won't be a Tamriel to call home."

"Until Alduin is defeated for sure, all we ask is that the war cease. Your fighting is unintentionally bringing the destruction of Nirn closer and closer." Kelsey finished. Silence across the room, as the Magelight dimmed out. We had said what we needed, now it was time for them to make amends.

Tullius spoke first. "What they say does make sense. The World Eater. Alduin."

"We're bringing about our own destruction..." Galmar said.

"So, we are ready to speak about a truce, then?" Arengar finally said. All around, heads nodded. Elenwen, myself, and Delphine were the only ones who didn't.

"Name your terms." Jonah said. "Hopefully we can come to an agreement."

"The Empire wants Riften." Tullius said almost instantly.

"Absolutely not!" Galmar backfired. "That puts you practically under our noses!"

"Shut up you old bear!" Rikka fired off. "Terms were asked and Riften is what we want in trade for a ceasefire."

"How dare you speak to Galmar like that, you arrogant cow!" Ulfric shouted back.

I stood up, and moved behind the Imperial side of the table. Things were not going as planned.

It was a bit of a parlour trick, but it was really simple. While everyone was yelling at each other, I wrote out _Markarth_ with my left index finger and middle finger. Managing my magicka, the writing burst into flames, and the word became visable to the naked eye. It was incredibly hard writing the name backwards, but when Jonah and Kelsey called order, I could see Ulfric and Galmar stare at me, and more importantly, the word I had written in the air.

"Oh, now there's an idea." Galmar started. I continued my way around the table, weaving Magelights to brighten up the room, making the Imperial party believe I was doing that while behind them.

Ulfric and Galmar were discussing the idea.

"With their silver mines, we'd be able to outfit our troops with better weapons. And, it gives us a strategic position to launch against Morthal and Falkreath." Galmar said.

"But would it be worth giving up Riften for, Galmar? Could we afford the loss?"

Tullius grew impatient. "Ulfric, should you keep us any longer, I'd more than likely dismiss this as a simple failure."

The Stormcloaks turned to address the Imperials. They looked calm, as if making up their minds.

"We'll agree to your terms Tullius. If for Riften, the Empire parted with Markarth."

Another outburst. Another argument. All three dragonborn were now standing, everyone was standing. This peace talk was anything but peaceful.

I made my way to Elenwen and pulled her outside. The terms had been set. She protested, being grabbed, but once we were outside I explained to her the plan.

"The terms have been offered on the table, and the other dragonborn won't allow them to leave High Hrothgar without accepting those terms for the cease fire. I can assure you, Lady Elenwen, that nothing will contridict the treaty the Aldmeri Dominion has with the Empire."

She paused, taller than me still, though even taller because she was standing on a step and I was not.

"How can you be so certain? You drag me out here while negotiations remain hostile, claiming this, but without seeing the documents that must be signed, I cannot trust your word."

She was resisting. A smart woman. The winds wipped at her thalmor robes, just like it wipped at my own.

"Like the waves lapping at the shore of time, history is destined to repeat itself." I said. I said it low, making her have to listen to pay attention. "War upon war, the season unending, the destiny of all man or mer. One small thing can disrupt these waves, causing an alternate course of action to be taken."

"Excuse me?" she asked.

"Near five weeks ago, during your grand yearly party at the Thalmor Embassy, a breton man caught your eye. A scholar, he claimed to be, though you cared little for what he did. You summoned him to your room, closed the door, and bid him to stay the night."

She was caught off guard. "How do you know this? How did you find out about that?" She was scowling now, her smoky voice sounding more like the game now.

"Yet he was a theif, wasn't he? He stole documents, and more than that, he stole your heart. This swauve breton man, this wolf amongst your hearded livestock."

"Decease and desist from this immediately. I will not be tortured like this, I won't." Her voice changed, sadness in her tone. Tortured? Had I truly made that much of an impact on her when I left?

"He told you that you would meet again, did he not? Though you would not know where or when." She turned her head, presumably now realizing what I was getting at.

"You?" she said. "But that's not possible. He carried himself with such pride, such dignity. You-"

"Are dragonborn breton that does the same. Yes, there's no way that a scholar would ever become one of the dragonborn."

She put her hand under her chin, the other hand supporting her elbow. "Unmask yourself, dragonborn."

I bowed. "I will do as the Lady Elenwen desires, and then I will tell you everything."

I pulled back my hood and lowered my mask, revealing my entire head. She raised her eyebrows in surprise, biting her lip, but did nothing else.

",,,and that was when I slipped away, made my way past your sleeping guards in the solace, and left with the thalmor prisoners through a cave below the embassy."

We were both sitting on the steps of High Hrothgar, and Elenwen had listened to the reasons that I attended her party. I could see her, recounting the night's events mentally. The wind had died down, for the most part, and everyone was still inside at the peace talks.

"Why did you stay?" she asked. "We made love for the better part of an entire afternoon and into the evening, at which you could've done what you needed to do."

"You aren't offended that I took advantage of you?"

"Oh, I'm furious. Yet half the pigs at that party would have done far worse. Drunken bastards, the lot of 'em." I raised an eyebrow at that remark. She continued. "Truly though, we knew nothing of the dragons returning except that an ancient order of dragon hunters might have something to do with it."

"I see. The Thalmor believed the Blades were responsible and vice versa."

She looked out at the view. "Why tell me now? Why not hide the charade forever?"

"It's because I respect women of authority. Partially because it was a memorable night that I enjoyed, as well. Should we dragonborn defeat Alduin, the war would be back on, and I have a feeling that Ulfric should become high king of Skyrim, he would most likely order any thalmor agents in Skyrim at the time to be beheaded. Which includes you."

She leaned back against the stairs, her chest popping out as she did so. I did not dare disrespect her by staring.

"I will tell you one thing, Elenwen. Though I don't agree with the thalmor being allowed to drag people off in the middle of the night, or the banning of Talos worship, I am loyal to the Empire. There are those of us in the empire who obey the thalmor rules against our wishes, and there are some who secretly defy them, as I'm sure you are aware.

"Ulfric is not right however. Splitting Skyrim from the Empire could only serve the soul purpose of keeping the Aldmeri Dominion as the leash. I'm sure that prisoners have called you disrespectful names, slander, among other things. I will answer for my crimes against the thalmor one day. Perhaps it'll be the headman's axe."

I summoned an orb of light in my fingers, playing with it to pass the time.

"When that time comes, you will answer to me. No one else." she said. "For what it's worth, I appreciate your honesty. So little people understand the thalmor, our intentions, our ways. It does surprise me to hear of your reasons for attending my party, yet it puts me at ease."

I remembered Sibylle's advice in learning to live in Skyrim. "Got any kids of your own, Elenwen?"

"What an odd question. Why do you ask?"

I shrugged. "I've already gotten to know you physically. Perhaps it's time I just got to know you."

She smiled, and sat up. "No, Aerune. Work often robs me of the chance to begin a family."

I returned the key to the Twilight Seplecure, meeting both Karlia and the goddess of twilight herself, Nocturnal. Though, she wasn't modestly dressed like in the game, and was more of a free formed version, stark naked. Karlia still showed her the same respect, and I did as well, until she offered me a boon, which I rejected.

Nocturnal wouldn't have it. Singlehandedly, I had set into motion events that lead to Mercer Frey's public execution, the recovery of the Skeleton Key, and more, with a simple business transaction. What was more, was the fact that I wasn't even a rogue, and had no reason to help restore her Seplucur.

Again, I had to decline anything she offered me, including perhaps the juciest bargain I could've gotten. A night with the goddess herself in her realm of oblivion. Karlia was so quick with her reaction of disapproval for this it wasn't even funny. Again, I had to decline, wishing nothing in return of Nocturnal's well being.

I left the Seplecur with a promise from Nocturnal, however. If I needed a boon, anything, it would be granted upon my next visit to the altar. A daedric prince never broke their promise, she reassured me.

Yet it was time to go back to Whiterun to summon Ohdaviing, and force him to fly us to the portal. Ulfric and Tullius had signed the treaty, agreeing for imperial occupation of the Rift while stormcloaks got access to the Reach. The cease fire would last a year, whihc was more than enough time for us to kill Alduin, and pursue other questlines.

A courier stopped me just outside of Riften, as I planned on meeting Jonah and Kelsey at Shor's Stone, and we'd continue to Whiterun from there. It was the same bosmer courier that I had employed to deliver letters for me a while back. I had my hood up and mask covering my face, so she couldn't possibly know who I was other than the mage dragonborn. I tipped her ten septims and made my way down the road, but not before she winked flirtatiously at me.

The letter read:

Aerune...

Regarding the Imperial occupation of Riften, as promised, I have declined the throne. After you defeat Alduin, I expect your presence immediatley, as I could use your talents post-haste.

Maven Black-Briar

Ps.

Don't expect to get paid either...


	10. Ohdaviing and Nahkriin

"Are you sure this will work?" Balgruuf asked. We were in the back half of the palace, on the Great Porch, awaiting for the right moment to summon Ohdaviing.

"No." Jonah said. "But have your men ready either way for a fight."

I took a deep breath. Kelsey stepped up from her kneeling position, and removed her helmet. I pulled down my mask, ready to shout.

"On your go Jonah." Kelsey said.

He bent his knees slightly. "On three. Ready?"

One...

Two...

Three...

"OH DA VIING!" the three of us shouted.

Silence. For about six minutes. Then a roar on the winds. He was coming.

"Ready Dragonrend." Jonah reminded us.

A red dragon swooped in from the left side, roaring his fierce cry. He stopped a few hundred feet out, and began speaking to us.

"The dragonborn summon me. To what do I owe this miraculous honor?"

"We need to know where Alduin has fled." Kelsey shouted to him. He laughed.

"Ha! I would rather be slain that betray the firstborn of Akatosh. You think my loyalty should bend so easily?"

"Then prove your loyalty to him." Jonah shouted. "Fight us. Should you die, your loyalty would remain intact either way."

"So you wish, dragonborn. Prepare yourselves. I am not to be triffled with!" He let loose a mighty roar, and a jet of flame erupted onto the Great Porch. He took off, and turned back around, meaning to enter the castle.

Right into our dragonrend.

He couldn't take of any longer, and I fired a Firebolt straight up, the signal to the guards. Mechanical wheels turned, and the contraption tumbled down on top of Ohdaviing, trapping him.

He wasn't to happy about it. Or Farengar prodding him with a staff. Kelsey approached his eye, speaking in the tongue of the dragons. She had spent a lot of time at Sky Haven, learning it, and it was basically a second language to her now. She was trying to make him understand what we needed him for, why we trapped him.

After a long one sided conversation, he turned to Jonah and I, blinking.

"I understand. Your female companion, she is gifted with the tongue of the Dova. Even I believed I was speaking with another of my kin." He snorted. "If that is why you seek the portal, I will take you there. But tread lightly. Many of Alduin's underlings gather there as we speak."

"You will fly us there?" I asked.

"If you should release me from this device, I shall. However, what you ask is all I shall do. No more, no less. Now, if you please..."

Jonah and I were already way ahead of him. We were on both sides of the neck harness, pulling on the chains, which would releive him of the bottom half of the device. He could get out from under it then.

And he did. But he snapped at Farengar first. The court wizard jumped back in the nick of time, and Ohdaviing showed great restraint by not eating him. It was time to get to defeating Alduin. Though, we had high hopes it would also let us return home.

"Elder dragon on the right, descending." Jonah yelled ahead of me. Surely, there it descended, yellow golden scales, teeth and all.

"I see him." I answered. I stuck my staff into a crevice, polevaulting onto the elder dragon's neck and back. He began to ascend, trying to shake me off.

"Fus, Ro!" Those were all I needed. He staggered, his lack of momentum sending him back down.

"Big Charlie!" Kelsey named him. Yeah, that would do.

I summoned a bound battle axe and raised it above my head, cracking down with all my might. Kelsey and Jonah were busy fighting draugr deathlords. I heard the skull split. I apologized to Big Charlie. He didn't need to die, but at the same time, he did.

I absorbed the soul and watched as the other two dispensed with the deathlords. I dismounted the pile of bones, kicking the skull with my boots and watching it fly into a pile of about four others.

We had been transported to Skuldafn on Ohdaviing's back, and arrived under the cover of night. It was now early morning, and we had been fighting draugr and elder dragons since our arrival.

I headed up the stairs, casting Blizzard at the draugr in my way. Jonah and Kelsey were soon not far behind. It was time to fight the dragonpriest, Nahkriin. Wall of Frost was ready to go, and I recast Ironflesh to get a fresh flesh spell active.

We had one more flight of stairs to go before making it to Nahkriin.

"Nahkriin is the dragonpriest here right?" Jonah asked, breathing heavily. "He the one that uses the staff for Wall of Storms?"

I gave a solemn nod. "Yup."

"How you guys wanna deal with him?" Kelsey asked. "Full on engage, tactical diversion, or just shout him apart?"

"It'd be easier to disentigrate him, most likely." I suggested. "He's basically a draugr, just a more powerful version with a mask."

"Someone will have to get behind him then." Jonah said, sweating and exhausted. We all were, but for someone as athletic as him to get tired.

Kelsey volunteered. She had come a long way in her stealth since we first got here, and I had a feeling Nocturnal would smile upon her for this. She sheathed her bow and started up the stairs, veering off to the left, and when Jonah and I made our way up the steps, she was nowhere to be seen.

Nahkriin noticed the two dragonborn approaching however, and shouted at us.

"Zu'u uth nall sic thurri dein daar miiraak."

Jonah veered off to the left, and I veered to the right, and Nahkriin moved down to the middle, just like we thought he would.

The disintigration technique requires two full length shouts fired off in rapid succession from three different angles. Something you wouldn't be able to do if this was a game. But as much as I kept wishing it was, it wasn't

I stamped my foot, facing Nahkriin.

Jonah stamped his foot, stopping and turning to do the same.

Kelsey appeared on the portal pedestal, stomping her foot. Nahkriin turned to face her. When he did, we let loose the combination of words.

"Jol va kuun, fus ro dah!"

Nahkriin was, for an instant, set on fire, before the three forces pressed against eachother, suffocating the flames towards his body, even tighter, and then his aged bones began to snap under the heat and pressure applied. His body contorted into a thin shape, crushing itself under the pressure, before the flames burst to life at the chance to breath air. He burst into flames, and turned to ash, letting loose a terrifying scream as he died. It was a glorious death, started and ended in the blink of an eye.

His staff, robes, and mask all dropped.

I had fallen on my ass. Jonah and Kelsey had armor, which absorbed some of the shockwaves created, but I was a mage. I didn't wear armor. Jonah lent me a hand, clad in what we dubbed as our 'dragonborn' armor. It was the altered ebony each of us had worn at the peace conference.

Kelsey was already picking up the dragonpriest mask.

"Didn't put up much resistance, did he?" she said, trying to pull off a joke. There was a reason he was dead. I bet daedric princes themselves wouldn't be able to withstand that.

Jonah had the honors of placing the staff back into the holder, and we took a moment to steady ourselves as we prepared to do what we needed to do.

A breather, for the first time since landing.

"This is it, huh? Time to slay the world eater." Jonah began.

"You're not going to go on about some big speech, are you?" I asked.

He grinned, devilishly so. In a voice that seemingly mocked a woman's tone, he went on. "I'd like to thank all the little people, the academy, the men who I've slain..."

Kelsey punched him on the shoulder. "Enough, Jay."

We all laughed. I sat, kicking my feet over the ledge. Kelsey kneeled and Jonah remained standing.

"Do you think it's like the game?" Jonah asked. "Sovenguarde? Or will we each see something differently?"

I began thinking about it. That was a good question.

"Our races don't go to Sovenguarde, Jonah. That's a nord only thing." Kelsey stated.

Jonah knelt down and slapped a gauntleted hand on my back. "Your right. Poor old Aaron over here would return to the stone, the little dwarf."

"You're an idiot." I said.

Jonah stood back up. "Well, only one way to find out." He took a few steps back, then dashed off the ledge, doing a frontflip. "Ten points for stylllllllllllle!"

He entered the white light, and was gone.

Kelsey jumped from where she was.

I stood, cracking my neck, and taking a few steps back. I envisioned a diving board. My boot hit the ground, and I sprinted towards the end of the diving board, stopping to jump and correct my position. I put my hands out infront of me, straightened out. A perfect dive.

White light engulfed me...


	11. It's Over

"Clear Skies shout! He can't hide behind this fog against the six of us!"

We stood with the ancient dragonborn, deep in the mists of Sovengaurde. I did as she instructed, uttering the words of Clear Skies.

The fog cleared, but then a thunderous sound shook the ground, and the fog closed back in around us. It was time to give this overgrown salamander what he had coming.

"One more time!" she said.

Again, I shouted the three words.

"Alduin!" Jonah shouted. "Are you so frightened by mere mortals that you need to hide yourself in this fog?"

He spoke only in dragon tongue. Kelsey translated for us.

"Watch you tongue, boy. Or I'll rip it out of your gullet. You wish to challenge the mighty Alduin? First born of Akatosh? So be it."

A red glow made it's way through the fog, and stopped infront of us. The fog crept back, revealing Alduin in his truest form.

It was like he was on fire. Red lines showed his veins, though they were burning. Even his eyes were a blaze. He looked menacing.

As if without thinking, all six of us cast dragonrend, following it up in succession by a different elemental shout.

I cast Fire Breath. Kelsey cast Frost Breath. Jonah had somehow managed to slip in an Ice Form, hitting Alduin in the maw. The heroes displayed equal skill, though their words were foreign to me, weaving in what seemed like lightning after their dragonrend.

Down he descended, and it was time to go to work.

I cast my Ironflesh, summoning Gjor and Autumn-fire to assist our fight. Jonah walked ever forward, shouting simple Fus every few steps, keeping Alduin staggered as he made his approach with the dragonborn heroes. Kelsey had begun shooting fast and from afar. Our job would be to make sure he remained grounded.

Gjor blitzed up to Alduin, hammering him in the throat, while Autum-fire shot three Firebolts from by my side.

I looked for an opening between the fighters, casting Wall of Storms, keeping our fighters from his more deadly end, while keeping Alduin locked in his place.

I shouted the dragonrend shout, just as it was about to wear off. Alduin was getting impatient. Gjor fizzled out. I resummoned him, taking a few steps forward, then moving back. He charged Alduin again, shattering his sharpened hand on Alduin's skull.

Kelsey used dragonrend. Alduin protested by rising up a little, only to be forced back down only a second later.

For several minutes this went on, both sides pressing forward, retreating, and repeating. Alduin slashed with his wing, sending the heroes and Jonah flying as a final act of rebellion to his down fall.

"NO. YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME! I AM ALDUIN, FIRST BORN OF AKATOSH, BORN TO RULE THIS WORLD AS I SEE FIT!" He let loose a mighty roar. Jonah had gotten up, and Alduin took to the sky. I missed my dragonrend, and so did Kelsey.

Alduin swooped back around, and Jonah threw something. It left my view quickly, so I couldn't make out what it was, but whatever it was, it stopped Alduin dead in his tracks.

In almost an instant, his death animation began. Flames erupted from his skin, as soon he was nothing but a floating skeleton, but that too, exploded, then almost evaporated from the plane of existance.

A bright flash in the skies of Sovengaurde. It blinded the six of us, and I for one, waited for the light to end, and to back at Kelsy's apartment.

But nothing. Alduin was dead, and we still had not been sent home.

No one said a word as we walked down the seven thousand steps. A troll had managed to try to attack us, but Jonah bashed it with his shield and kicked it off the mountain. It was eerily quiet.

Across the bridge to Ivarstead, and through the small farming town. We stopped at the inn, silently ordering whatever fish water they served as liquor. We said nothing, and sat at a table in the corner.

Kelsey was crying, her four empty bottles of ale catching up to her. Her head was on the table, eyes puffy and red. Just, silently crying.

Jonah was on his seventh. He just drank, paid for another, and drank it.

I was doing much the same. Though I wasn't paying upfront. I was on my ninth ale. They weren't helping. The fact that I could drink them meant that I wasn't home. And if I wasn't home, I wasn't happy. I started to get angry. Angry at Alduin, angry at myself, angry at whatever forsaken force kept us here, brought us here.

I looked at my sleeve. Dark colored. The color we agreed was to represent us as dragonborn. I wanted it off. I didn't want to be one of the gods damned dragonborn. I wanted to be Aaron, an up and coming engineer for some big company, designing and making the latest products for your home life, or developing ways to make your smartphone better.

I stood, a bit violently. I ripped off the robe and threw it onto the floor, hood, mask, all of it. I set it on fire with a thought, standing there in my trousers, face hot.

I flipped over a table before storming out of the inn, looking for something to punch and or kill. A goat. Perfect. I melted that poor goat to a crisp before the Ivarstead guards tackled and eventually arrested me, sticking my face in the dirt road, swords drawn to my neck.

"Do it!" I yelled at them. "Fucking do it! Give me an eternity's peace for once in my life!" I wanted to die. Anything was better than being trapped here. Anything, if it would get me home. Or atleast someplace like it.

The guards raised their blades, intending to cut my head off. I smiled, a tear falling down my cheek.

"Enough!" The blade was inches away from my neck. It was Jonah's voice.

"No." I told him. "Don't try and stop me. I'm going home."

The guards parted ways as Jonah approached. I never looked at his face. His ebony boots stood before me. And then he kicked me in the head. I flew backwards.

"Fucking coward." He spat out. I was on my back, and he walked up to me, and kicked my ribs. "Who do you think you are? Huh? You were going to kill yourself and take the easy way out, huh, Aaron?"

He kicked me again.

"Piss off, Jonah."

"If you think I for one, would ever let my best friend off himself..." He kicked my leg. "You're a fucking loon. Fine, go off yourself, see if Kelsey or I give a shit. And when we're back home, and your stuck, dead as a fucking," he kicked my back. "...doornail. I don't want to hear it. You got that?"

He turned and walked away.

I shouldn't have opened my mouth. I was bruised and bleeding. "Go rot in hell, Jonah..."

He immediatley turned around.

The last thing I saw was a black boot flying for my face.

Bitter cold woke me from my slumber. I tried to open my eyes, only succeeding in opening the right one about a few centimeters. My left eye was bruised shut, I suppose.

A figure, blurred in my veiw. I was not where I was left. I wasn't even on the ground. I was, being carried? By whom, and for what purpose?

I tried to move, and the figure looked down at me. Piercing violet eyes stood out against the black figure. I had no idea who this was. As if telling me to go back to sleep, the violet eyes closed, and my own vision faded.

What was happening?

A raven squacked. I sat up straight, though where I was I had no idea. Nothing was around me. Nothing except long descending shadows and ravens that perched on nothing. I wasn't even sure what I was laying on.

I looked around me. A shadowed version of myself lay still, somehow hovering in the air directly beside me. It jolted up almost at once, following my movements from there on out. I turned, placing my feet out. I was in my birthday suit. What had removed my shoes and my trousers?

I dropped, yet somehow, something formed under my feet as I walked. Was this how the ravens were perched? After a few moments delay, I heard the shadowy version of me follow. It kind of creeped me out.

The nothingness seemed to open up into a larger room of nothingness, shades of light falling every now and again. This place was beautiful, if mysterious. Was this the void?

"Not the void..." The sound came from my shadowy figure. I turned back to look at it, but it somehow had been molding itself into something different. It was not a woman's shadow, and had the same violet eyes that I saw before.

"Who are you?" I asked. "What is this place?"

"Dear boy, I would think that you would remember that I would be keeping an eye on you. You are not like my other charges, which I find refreshing, yet you are just as clueless as they are to what I do for you..."

Keeping an eye on me? Her form was engulfed by raven feathers, and after the morphing had finished, stood a stark naked version of Nocturnal, just like I had met in the Seplecur. She floated around me, inspecting me with her own eyes.

"I do not know what caused you such distress, over you victory with Alduin, but I will not have my Champion murdering himself while I am still endebted to what he has done for me."

"You were the one who was carrying me?"

"I was. Yet a testiment to your strength, you awoke far before we reached my realm of oblivion." She motioned around to the nothingness that surrounded us. "I have tended to your fractured ribs, cracked skull, and broken thigh."

I gazed over my body. The bruises were gone.

"And, I am naked because?"

She chuckled to herself. "Even a daedric prince gets bored, my champion. If you wish, I can show you what you missed." She came in closer, reaching out to touch my forehead, but I took a step back.

"I think that you should keep those memories." I admitted. "More fun in me not knowing what went on."

She glided back. "Fair enough." She waved her hand, and a shroud of light peered into my eyes, blinding me for a moment. When I regained my vision...It was better. I could see each and every distinct detail of Nocturnal's body, though it was far from my close range view.

"What did you just do?" I asked, blinking my eyes.

"Come now, my champion. You're not an idiot. It was the final thing that needed repair, though I wanted you awake when I did it. I have gifted you with my shadow sight, and don't worry. Elven women will still be hypnotized by your gaze."

She floated up next to me, placing my arm between her breasts, placing her hands on my shoulder. "Do you know why that is?" I asked, trying not to think about the flawless female body next to me.

"A gift from another daedric prince, perhaps. Though if that is true, or simply just an effect you have over elven women, it is not in my knowledge or power to know." She rubbed her body up my arm.

"Mistress Nocturnal, please. Can you send me back home?"

She bit her lip, and spoke calmly. "Back to your home? The one you desire to go back to, or the one that I will send you back to?"

"What do you know of where I want to go?"

"I have peered into your mind. Seen strange and wonderful things about where you think you came from. Your mind was, odd, to see into. Yet, I have seen more of Nirn there than other things."

"Where _can_ you send me back?" I asked.

"Ah, the inevitable question has been asked. I will send you back to my shrine, and from there I will continue to watch my champion grow and prosper under the steady hand of my guidance. But should you wish to return, you must go now. You are rather... _distracting_."

"Hey, if you ever wanna climb on board after I settle down, you need just ask." I joked. Though I think she took it seriously.

"A daedric prince at your beck and call, and in your bed?" she said, flat toned. Serious. Um. Sure? "Perhaps. But you must leave at once, or I won't allow you to leave at all."

I knelt to the ground as she backed away. "With your blessing, Mistress."

I fell through where I knelt, and soon the darkness became light, and I landed flat outside the altar room. Karlia was there, and she threw a hissy fit, claiming I should put some clothes on in the respected space of the Matriarch of Twilight.

"Yeah...I don't think she minds, Karlia..."

* * *

 **Well, hope you guys enjoyed part one. Part two is a little slow, but in the final part, it picks up dramatically. Stay with me through the boring parts, and you'll see how it ends. But thanks for reading and contributing to From Game to Fame. Still having a blast writing the last few chapters, where shit gets real. First two chapters for part two should be out in twelve days.**


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